LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  «f 


SAN  DIEGO 


€Hir*tal 
AMBASSADORS'  Q>mO\ 


JA  PAN 


ITS  HisTom  .  \irrs.  \ 

LI  Ti:n  \T!    RK 


i  I  MK    1 

THE    VILLAGE    WATER    WHEEL 


J.  B.  MILLET  GOMPAN1 

BOSTON  AND  TOKYO 


J33HW    H3T/.V7    3,)/.JJTY    3HT 


JAPAN 


ITS   HISTORY,  ARTS,  AND 
LITERATURE 


CAPTAIN  F.  BRINKLEY 


J.  13.  MILLET   COMPANY 

BOSTON  AND  TOKYO 


COPYRIGHT,  1901 
BY   J     B.    MILLET    CO. 


ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS     BALL,   LONDON,   ENGLAND 


THE  •  PLIMPTOH  •  PRESS 
[W  .  D  -o] 

NORWOOD  .  MASS  •  U  •  S  •  A 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

Page 
PRESENT  JAPAN i 

CHAPTER    II 
PRIMJEVAL  JAPANESE 26 

CHAPTER  III 
JAPAN  ON  THE  VERGE  OF  HISTORY 50 

CHAPTER  IV 
TAPAN  IN  THE  EARLY  ERAS  OF  HISTORY  ....       89 

J  * 

CHAPTER    V 
THE  JAPANESE  IN  THE  NARA  EPOCH 131 

CHAPTER   VI 
THE  HEIAN  EPOCH 157 

CHAPTER    VII 
THE  HEIAN  EPOCH  (Continued'] 196 

APPENDIX •     •     247 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

The  Village  Water-Wheel Frontispiece 

A  Group  of  Ainu 32 

Dolmen  at  Domyoji-yama  (Kawachi) 48 

A  Shirabiyashi  —  Aristocratic  Lady,  Heian  Epoch    .      .  120 

A  Winter  Scene  in  Yokohama 192 

View  of  Katsura  River  near  Arashiyama        ....  224 
i 


JAPAN 


ITS  HISTORY  ARTS  AND 
LITERATURE 


Chapter  I 

PRESENT  JAPAN 

JAPAN,  since  the  resumption  of  her  inter- 
course with  Western  nations  forty  years  ago, 
has  attracted  much  attention  and  inspired  an 
extraordinarily  large  number  of  book-makers 
to  discuss  her  beauties  and  her  quaintnesses.  Not 
one  of  these  many  authors  has  been  wholly  con- 
demnatory. Most  of  them  found  something  to 
admire  in  the  manners  and  customs  of  her  people, 
and  all  were  charmed  by  her  art  and  her  scenery. 
Certainly,  in  the  matters  of  seascape  and  land- 
scape, Nature  has  been  profusely  kind  to  the  Isles 
of  Nippon.  They  rise  out  of  the  sea  with  so 
many  graces  of  form,  and  lie  bathed  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  such  sparkling  softness,  that  it  is  easy  to 
sympathise  with  the  legend  ascribing  their  origin 
to  crystals  dropped  from  the  point  of  the  Creator's 
spear.  That  they  fell  from  some  heaven  of  gen- 
erous gods  is  a  theory  more  consonant  with  their 


JAPAN 

aspect,  than  the  sober  fact  that  they  form  part 
of  a  great  ring  welded  by  volcanic  energy  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  that  still,  from  time  to  time, 
they  shudder  with  uneasy  memories  of  the  fiery 
forces  that  begot  them. 

Eastern  Asia  thrusts  two  long  slender  arms  into 
far  oriental  waters  :  Kamtchatka  in  the  north, 
Malacca  in  the  south ;  and  between  these  lies 
a  giant  girdle  of  islands,  holding  in  its  embrace 
Siam,  Cochin  China,  the  Middle  Kingdom, 
Korea,  and  the  eastern  end  of  the  Great  White 
Czar's  dominions,  thus  extending  from  latitude 
50°  north  to  the  equator.  When  Commodore 
Perry  anchored  at  Uraga,  in  1854,  the  empire 
of  Japan  stretched  along  two-fifths  of  this  girdle. 
Beginning  on  the  south,  at  Cape  Sata,  the  lowest 
point  of  the  Island  of  Nine  Provinces  (Kiushu), 
it  ended,  on  the  north,  with  a  disputed  fragment 
of  Saghalien,  and  an  unsettled  number  of  the 
attenuated  filament  of  islets  called  the  Kuriles. 
Since  then,  the  empire  has  been  pushed  ten  de- 
grees southward.  Now,  including  the  Riukiu 
(Loochoo)  Islands  and  Formosa,  it  constitutes 
three-fifths  of  the  girdle  —  a  distance  of  two 
thousand  miles  —  and  extends  over  thirty  degrees 
of  latitude  and  thirty-five  of  longitude.  Its  ex- 
pansion has  followed  the  law  of  geographical 
affinities  —  temporarily  transgressed  in  the  case 
of  the  United  States  only,  and  ultimately  verified 
by  their  history  also :  —  southward  the  star  of 
empire  has  taken  its  way.  One  loss  of  territory 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

was  suffered  by  Japan  in  that  interval,  perhaps 
by  way  of  permanent  punishment  for  standing  so 
long  aloof  from  the  outer  world  :  she  had  to  sur- 
render to  Russia  the  island  of  Saghalien,  —  Kara- 
futo,  in  her  own  nomenclature.  But  that  exception 
tends  only  to  emphasise  the  general  rule  of  her 
expansion.  First,  she  took  steps  to  assure  her 
possession  of  the  Bonin  group  of  islands  —  Oga- 
sawara-jima,  as  she  calls  them  —  which,  though 
discovered  by  her  mariners  two  hundred  years 
previously,  were  not  included  in  her  sphere  of 
active  occupation  until  1871.  Next  she  annexed 
the  Riukiu  archipelago,  known  to  Western  folks 
as  the  Loochoos,  which  form  a  series  of  stepping- 
stones  between  her  shores  and  Formosa.  They 
were  claimed  by  China  as  an  integral  part  of  her 
empire,  and  the  incidents  of  their  acquisition 
by  Japan  almost  involved  the  latter  in  a  war 
with  her  colossal  neighbour,  at  that  time  (1874) 
believed  to  be  a  Power  of  immense  military  re- 
sources. But  Japan  thought  that  she  had  a  title 
to  the  islands,  and  she  asserted  it  with  courageous 
tenacity.  The  war  then  averted  with  difficulty, 
broke  out  twenty  years  later,  and  ended  in  a 
complete  victory  for  Japan,  one  of  the  fruits  of 
her  success  being  that  she  added  Formosa  and 
the  Pescadores  to  her  dominions,  which  thus 
consist  now  of  five  large  islands  and  a  multitude 
of  islets,  the  latter  scattered  along  her  coasts  or 
grouped  into  four  clusters,  —  the  Kuriles  (Chin- 
shima)  on  the  north ;  the  Bonins  (Ogasawara- 

3 


JAPAN 

jima)  on  the  east;  the  Loochoo  (Riukiu  or 
Okinawa)  on  the  south ;  and  the  Pescadores,  off 
the  southwest  coast  of  Formosa.1 

Territorial  expansion  has  therefore  been  a  fea- 
ture of  Japan's  debut  upon  the  world's  stage. 
Growth  has  marked  the  opening  of  her  new 
career.  The  fact  takes  its  place  properly  at  the 
head  of  her  modern  records,  for  it  constitutes  a 
convincing  proof  that  the  diet  of  Western  civili- 
sation has  brought  to  her  an  access  of  vigour, 
instead  of  overtaxing  her  digestion,  as  was  gener- 
ally feared  at  first. 

To  speak  of  a  country  as  making  its  debut 
upon  the  world's  stage,  is  to  suggest  the  idea  of 
youth.  But  the  age  of  the  Japanese  nation, 
measured  by  the  mere  lapse  of  centuries,  is  very 
mature.  They  themselves  claim  to  have  been  an 
organised  State  for  twenty-six  hundred  years,  and 
there  is  no  valid  reason  to  deny  at  least  the  proxi- 
mate accuracy  of  their  estimate.  It  is  a  great 
age,  yet  insignificant  compared  with  that  of  the 
neighbouring  empire,  China,  which  can  count 
fully  the  double  of  Japan's  tale  of  years.  Both 
are  ancient  from  an  Occidental  point  of  view, 
and  perhaps  because  their  fellowship  with  the 
West  has  been  so  short  in  comparison  with  the 
long  succession  of  cycles  covered  by  their  records, 
it  has  become  a  habit  to  bracket  them  together 
as  simultaneously  introduced  to  the  circle  of 
civilised  States.  There  is,  however,  a  radical 

1  See  Appendix,  note  i . 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

difference  between  the  two  countries.  China 
stands,  in  the  Far  East,  an  imposing  figure  with 
her  gigantic  expanse  of  territory,  her  immense 
population,  and  her  vast  wealth  of  undeveloped 
resources.  Such  elements  seem  capable  of  being 
moulded  into  a  world-moving  force,  and  their 
potentialities  have  even  appalled  some  leaders 
of  European  thought.  But  if  history  teaches 
anything  it  teaches  that  there  is  only  one  grand 
climacteric  in  the  career  of  a  nation.  Beyond 
the  summit  descent  is  inevitable.  The  continuity 
of  the  downward  grade  is  never  broken  by  a  sec- 
ond eminence.  As  it  fares  with  a  man  or  with  a 
tree,  so  it  fares  with  a  nation's  growth  or  decay. 
China  long  ago  reached  the  zenith  of  her  great- 
ness, and  has  been  sinking  steadily  to  lower  levels 
ever  since.  She  was  never  an  isolated  State,  hus- 
banding her  resources  in  seclusion  and  waiting  to 
be  galvanised  into  new  life  by  contact  with  rival 
countries.  Her  very  name,  the  "  Middle  King- 
dom," indicates  the  relation  in  which  she  stood 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Whatever  other  States 
had  to  give,  she  received  as  a  tribute  to  her  own  in- 
effable superiority,  not  as  an  incentive  to  emula- 
tion and  exertion.  That  frame  of  mind  became 
at  last  an  instinct.  It  destroyed  her  appetite  for 
assimilation  and  condemned  her  to  succumb  to 
any  civilisation  she  could  not  despise.  Japan's 
case  has  been  dissimilar  from  point  to  point. 
Her  whole  career  has  been  a  continuous  effort 
of  assimilation ;  her  invariable  attitude,  that  of 

5 


JAPAN 

modest  studentship.  One  advantage  only  she 
claimed  over  other  States.  It  was  the  divine  ori- 
gin of  her  rulers  and  the  consequent  guardianship 
extended  to  her  by  the  gods.  But  her  deities 
were  not  supposed  to  contribute  anything  to 
her  material  civilisation.  Their  most  beneficent 
function  was  tutelary.  Hence  her  people  never 
classed  themselves  above  other  nations  in  a  pro- 
gressive sense.  They  were  always  perfectly  ready 
to  accept  and  adopt  every  good  thing  that  a  for- 
eign country  had  to  offer,  whether  of  philosophy, 
of  art,  of  technique,  of  administration,  or  of  legis- 
lation. That  is  a  fact  which  stands  out  in  doubly 
leaded  capitals  on  the  pages  of  Japan's  story.  From 
the  very  earliest  hours  of  her  national  career  the 
stranger  was  welcomed  within  her  gates.  Who- 
ever brought  to  her  any  product  of  foreign  learn- 
ing, genius,  or  industry,  whether  from  China,  from 
Korea,  or  from  the  South  Seas,  was  received  with 
acclaim,  and  not  merely  granted  a  domicile,  but 
also  admitted  to  many  of  the  most  honourable 
offices  the  State  had  to  bestow,  and  to  the  highest 
ranks  of  the  social  organisation.  Many  of  her 
noble  families  trace  their  origin  to  emigrants  from 
the  Asiatic  continent;  many  of  her  artists  and 
men  of  letters  are  proud  to  show  a  strain  of 
Chinese  or  Korean  blood  in  their  lineage. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  long  break  in  the  conti- 
nuity of  that  liberal  attitude,  a  break  of  more 
than  two  hundred  years.  From  the  early  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  to  the  middle  of  the 

6  ' 


PRESENT    JAPAN 

nineteenth,  Japan  led  an  almost  hermit  existence. 
Of  her  own  choice  she  closed  her  doors  to  all  the 
nations  of  the  Occident  except  the  Dutch,  and 
with  them,  too,  her  intercourse  ultimately  became 
an  affair  of  haughty  tolerance  on  one  side  and 
narrow  privileges  on  the  other.  But  if  the  world 
learned  to  regard  her  in  those  days  as  a  semi-savage 
recluse,  that  was  simply  the  world's  misconcep- 
tion. Were  the  sentiments  which,  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  impel  the  United 
States  and  Australia  to  bar  out  the  Chinese,  and 
induce  Russia  and  Germany  to  ostracise  the  Jews, 
—  were  those  sentiments  multiplied  by  factors  of 
political  apprehension  and  religious  intolerance, 
they  would  still  fall  short  of  the  feelings  that 
Japan  learned  to  cultivate  towards  Occidentals  at 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth.  Opening  her  ports  to 
their  traders  more  freely  than  any  other  con- 
temporaneous nation  would  have  done,  she  found 
them  rapidly  denude  her  of  her  gold  and  silver. 
Showing  towards  the  preaching  and  propagandism 
of  their  religion  an  attitude  of  tolerance  absolutely 
without  precedent  in  mediaeval  days,  she  discovered 
that  the  alien  creed  became  a  political  weapon 
pointed  at  the  heart  of  her  own  national  integrity 
and  independence.  Her  instincts  had  prompted 
her  to  be  liberal  and  receptive ;  her  experience 
had  compelled  her  to  be  conservative  and  repel- 
lent. We  who  see  things  assume  their  due  pro- 
portions in  the  long  vista  of  the  past,  know  that 

7 


JAPAN 

a  more  patient  trial  would  have  dispelled  her  sus- 
picions, and  that  instead  of  closing  her  gates  against 
the  world  for  the  sake  of  Roman  Catholicism  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  she  might  safely  have 
kept  them  open  in  its  despite,  and  commenced 
then  the  career  of  progress  which  promises  to 
carry  her  so  far  to-day.  But  to  adopt  such  a 
course  in  the  face  of  such  dissuasive  experiences, 
she  must  have  been  as  much  in  advance  of  her 
time  as  she  ultimately  fell  behind  it  by  choosing 
a  policy  of  isolation.  No  nation  with  which 
history  makes  us  acquainted  would  have  acted  a 
part  different  from  the  one  she  selected,  and  if 
she  clung  to  her  seclusion  long  enough  to  be 
counted  a  benighted  bigot,  it  was  largely  because 
a  geographical  accident  made  it  easy  for  her,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  live  apart,  and  kept  her,  on  the 
other,  beyond  the  effective  range  of  influences 
which  would  certainly  have  drawn  her  out  of 
her  hermitage.  Besides,  on  the  Occident  only, 
or,  to  narrow  the  facts  to  their  exact  limits,  on 
the  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  the  Occident 
only,  did  she  turn  her  back  between  1630  and 
1857.  The  Dutch  had  commercial  access  to  her 
dominions,  and  the  Chinese  might  come  and  go 
at  will.  Grant  that  the  Hollanders  were  sub- 
jected to  humiliating  restrictions,  and  grant  also 
that  there  was  no  reciprocity  of  intercourse  with 
China,  since  Japanese  subjects  might  not  cross  to 
the  neighbouring  empire  ;  yet  it  must  still  be 
conceded  that  these  ultimate  vetoes  were  dictated 

8 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

by  extraneous  causes,  whereas  the  previous  sanc- 
tions reflected  Japan's  natural  disposition.  She 
had  always  been  liberal  by  instinct,  though  her 
mood  had  sometimes  become  conservative  by 
education. 

If  these  facts  are  recognised,  her  modern  ca- 
reer becomes  much  more  intelligible.  Many 
onlookers  have  wondered  that  a  nation  should  be 
able  to  spring  suddenly  out  of  an  isolation  which 
three  centuries  of  observance  had  crystallised  into  a 
creed,  and  should  suddenly  embrace  an  alien  civil- 
isation not  merely  with  avidity,  but  also  with  apt- 
itude such  as  only  a  thoroughly  liberal  mood  could 
beget.  The  truth  is  that  these  singular  feats  indi- 
cated, not  a  change  of  nature,  but  the  re-assertion 
of  an  inborn  disposition.  For  eighteen  centuries 
she  had  been  freely  borrowing  and  assimilating 
everything  that  her  Oriental  neighbours  had  to 
offer,  and  when,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth, 
she  discovered  that  the  Occident  was  incompara- 
bly a  greater  teacher,  she  merely  obeyed  her  im- 
memorial tendency  of  entering  the  newly  opened 
school.  But,  it  may  be  urged,  though  that  accounts 
for  her  liberalism,  it  does  not  explain  her  recep- 
tivity. It  tells  us  why  she  did  not  cling  to  her 
temporary  conservatism,  but  it  does  not  tell  us 
why  her  progress  became  so  rapid  as  to  surprise  the 
world.  When  an  American  squadron  arrived  to 
break  down  her  isolation,  she  did  not  possess  even 
the  beginnings  of  a  national  fleet  or  a  national 
army ;  of  an  ocean-going  mercantile  marine ;  of 

9 


JAPAN 

a  telegraphic  or  postal  system ;  of  a  newspaper 
press ;  of  enlightened  codes,  of  a  trained  judiciary, 
or  of  properly  organised  tribunals  of  justice  ;  she 
knew  nothing  of  Occidental  sciences  and  philoso- 
phies ;  was  a  complete  stranger  to  international 
law  and  to  the  usages  of  diplomacy  ;  had  no  con- 
ception of  parliamentary  institutions  or  popular 
representation,  and  was  divided  into  a  number  of 
feudal  principalities,  each  virtually  independent 
of  the  other,  and  all  alike  untutored  in  the  spirit 
of  nationality  or  imperialism.  In  thirty  years 
these  conditions  were  absolutely  metamorphosed. 
Feudalism  had  been  abolished;  the  whole 
country  united  under  one  administration;  the 
polity  of  the  State  placed  on  a  constitutional 
basis ;  the  people  admitted  to  a  share  in  the  gov- 
ernment under  representative  institutions;  an  ab- 
sorbing sentiment  of  patriotism  substituted  for 
the  narrow  local  loyalties  of  rival  fiefs ;  the  coun- 
try intersected  with  telegraphs  and  railways,  and 
its  remotest  districts  brought  within  the  circuit  of 
an  excellent  postal  system ;  the  flag  of  the  nation 
carried  to  distant  countries  by  a  large  mercantile 
marine;  a  powerful  fleet  organised,  manned  by 
expert  seamen,  and  proved  to  be  as  capable  of 
fighting  scientifically  as  of  navigating  the  high 
seas  with  marked  immunity  from  mishap ;  the 
method  of  conscription  applied  to  raising  a  large 
military  force,  provided  with  the  best  modern 
weapons  and  trained  according  to  Western  tactics ; 
the  laws  recast  on  the  most  advanced  principles 

10 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

of  Occidental  jurisprudence  and  embodied  in  ex- 
haustive codes  ;  provision  made  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  by  well-equipped  tribunals  and 
an  educated  judiciary  ;  an  extensive  system  of 
national  education  inaugurated,  with  universities 
turning  out  students  capable  of  original  research 
in  the  sciences  and  philosophies  of  the  West; 
the  State  represented  at  foreign  courts  by  com- 
petent diplomatists  ;  the  people  supplied  with  an 
ample  number  of  journals  and  periodicals  ;  the 
foundations  of  a  great  manufacturing  career  laid, 
and  the  respect  of  foreign  Powers  unreservedly 
won.  Such  a  record  may  well  excite  wonder. 

But  before  crediting  the  Japanese  with  excep- 
tional qualities  for  the  sake  of  their  modern 
progress,  we  must  agree  upon  a  standard  of  com- 
parison, and  that  is  difficult,  since  the  history  of 
nations  furnishes  only  one  case  approximately 
parallel  to  that  of  Japan.  Were  any  liberal- 
minded  Western  people  brought  suddenly  into 
contact  with  a  civilisation  immensely  higher  than 
its  own,  a  civilisation  presenting  material  advan- 
tages and  attractions  that  the  least  intelligent  must 
appreciate,  who  can  venture  to  gauge  the  impulse 
of  adoption  or  the  speed  of  assimilation  that  such 
a  people  would  develop  ?  Suppose  that  to  the 
eyes  of  the  English  of  a  hundred  years  ago  there 
had  been  abruptly  exposed  a  stage  whereon  rail- 
ways ran,  steamboats  plied,  telegraphs  flashed 
their  messages  to  limitless  distances,  telephones 
made  whispers  audible  across  continents,  torpe- 

ii 


JAPAN 

does,  breech-loaders,  machine  guns,  and  iron-clads 
revolutionised  warfare,  carriages  were  propelled 
by  electricity,  and  men  travelled  at  the  rate  of 
thirty  miles  an  hour  on  machines  which  could 
not  stand  upright  at  rest,  —  would  not  the  display 
have  revolutionised  England  ?  Yet  this  catalogue 
of  wonders  has  to  be  largely  extended  before  it 
covers  the  exhibition  by  which  Japan  was  daz- 
zled forty  years  ago.  No  wonder  that  she 
stretched  out  eager  hands  to  grasp  such  an  array 
of  novelties. 

If  that  were  all  she  had  done,  it  might  not  be 
fair  to  say  that  any  intelligent  people  would  have 
acted  with  less  vigour  under  similar  circum- 
stances. But  Japan  did  not  confine  herself  to 
adopting  the  externals  of  Western  civilisation. 
She  became  an  eager  pupil  of  its  scientific,  politi- 
cal, moral,  philosophic,  and  legislative  systems 
also.  She  took  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter, 
and  by  so  doing  differentiated  herself  effectively 
from  Oriental  States.  It  has  been  objected  that 
this  wholesale  receptivity  was  limited  to  a  few 
leaders  of  thought,  —  to  the  literati  and  the  mili- 
tary patricians  whose  will  had  always  been  law 
to  the  commoners.  Certainly  that  is  true  as  to 
the  initiative.  But  it  is  unimaginable  that  such 
sweeping  changes  could  have  been  effected  in  a 
quiet  and  orderly  manner  had  not  the  hearts  of 
the  people  been  with  the  reformers.  In  Japan 
no  railways  were  torn  up,  no  machines  wrecked, 
no  lines  of  telegraph  demolished  by  labourers 

12 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

who  feared  for  their  own  employment  or  fanatics 
who  saw  their  superstitions  slighted.  Rapid  as 
was  the  pace  set  by  the  leaders  of  progress,  the 
masses  did  not  hang  back.  That  tribute  at  least 
must  be  paid  to  the  nation's  intelligent  liberality 
by  any  honest  writer  of  its  modern  history.  We 
may  deny  that  other  peoples  might  not  have 
done  as  well,  but  we  can  scarcely  affirm  that  any 
would  have  done  better.  The  only  known  in- 
stance of  parallel  opportunity  was  China,  and  to 
China,  after  a  hundred  years  of  scrutiny,  the 
advantages  of  Occidental  civilisation  are  still 
invisible. 

Another  point  to  be  noted  in  analysing  the 
causes  of  Japan's  success  is  that  many  phases  of 
her  own  civilisation  were  superior  to  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  West  when  she  began  to  assimilate 
the  better  parts  of  the  latter.  She  did  not  bring 
to  the  examination  of  Occidental  systems  and 
their  products  a  mind  wholly  untrained  to  dis- 
tinguish the  good  from  the  bad.  In  her  social 
conventionalisms,  in  her  refinements  of  life,  in 
her  altruistic  ethics,  in  many  of  her  canons  of 
domestic  conduct,  in  her  codes  of  polite  etiquette, 
in  her  applications  of  art,  she  could  have  given 
to  Europe  lessons  as  useful  as  those  she  had  to 
learn  from  it.  That  she  should  see  the  right 
quickly  might  have  been  anticipated.  Then 
there  was  her  ambition,  an  absorbing  sentiment. 
Almost  from  the  first  moment  when  she  looked 
out  on  the  world  which  had  so  long  been  hidden 

13 


JAPAN 

from  her,  she  detected  the  wide  interval  separat- 
ing her  material  civilisation  from  that  of  the 
West.  Thenceforth  it  became  the  constantly 
expressed  aspiration  of  every  educated  Japanese 
that  his  country  soon  "  get  level "  with  Occi- 
dental nations  in  the  race  of  progress.  That  wish 
was  paramount  from  the  very  beginning.  There 
was  not  the  least  attempt  to  throw  any  bridge  of 
extenuation  across  the  gulf  of  inferiority.  The 
frankly  recognised  facts  inspired  an  earnest  re- 
solve to  alter  them  if  possible,  and  as  speedily 
as  possible.  How  many  Japanese  students  have 
overtaxed  their  powers  of  endurance  under  the 
goad  of  that  aspiration,  how  many  statesmen  have 
made  it  the  prime  motive  of  their  administration, 
no  one  can  conceive  who  has  not  observed  these 
people  closely  since  they  first  stepped  out  of  the 
shadow  of  isolation. 

Strangers  discussing  the  character  of  the  Japan- 
ese have  assigned  to  it  an  extraordinary  element 
of  patriotism,  and  inferred  abnormal  readiness  to 
make  sacrifices  on  the  altar  of  love  of  country. 
There  is  no  warrant  for  such  a  theory.  The 
Japanese  doubtless  have  their  full  share  of  patri- 
otism, but  they  cannot  claim  an  unexceptional 
measure  of  it.  What  is  mistaken  for  an  unusual 
abundance  of  the  sentiment  is  simply  its  morbid 
activity,  caused,  on  the  one  hand,  by  a  genuine 
perception  of  the  distance  they  have  to  traverse 
before  they  reach  the  elevation  of  prosperity  and 
progress  on  which  Occidental  nations  stand ;  on 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

the  other,  by  the  treatment  they  have  received  at 
'the  hands  of  those  nations.  The  most  tolerant 
of  Europeans  has  always  regarded  the  Japanese, 
and  let  them  see  that  he  regarded  them,  merely 
as  interesting  children.  Languidly  curious  at 
best  about  the  uses  to  which  they  would  put 
their  imported  toys,  his  curiosity  was  purely 
academical,  and  whenever  circumstances  required 
him  to  be  practical,  he  laid  aside  all  pretence  of 
courtesy  and  let  it  be  plainly  seen  that  he  counted 
himself  master  and  intended  to  be  so  counted. 
If  the  archives  of  the  Japanese  Foreign  Office 
were  published  without  expurgation,  their  early 
pages  would  make  a  remarkable  record.  Diplo- 
matic euphemisms  are  the  last  thing  to  be  sought 
there.  And  in  that  respect  they  reflect  the  de- 
meanour of  the  ordinary  foreigner.  When  not 
a  harsh  critic,  he  was  either  contemptuously  tol- 
erant or  loftily  patronising.  The  Japanese  chafed 
under  that  kind  of  treatment  for  many  years,  and 
they  resent  it  still ;  for  though  a  pleasant  altera^ 
tion  has  gradually  been  effected  in  the  foreigner's 
methods,  the  memory  of  the  evil  time  survives. 
Besides,  they  neither  consider  the  change  com- 
plete, nor  regard  its  causes  with  unmixed  satis- 
faction. It  is  not  complete  because  the  taint  of 
Orientalism  has  not  yet  been  removed  from  the 
nation,  and  the  causes  are  unsatisfactory  because 
they  suggest  a  low  estimate  of  Western  morality. 
No  one  who  should  tell  the  Japanese  to-day 
that  the  consideration  they  have  won  from  the 

'5 


JAPAN 

West  is  due  solely  to  their  progress  in  peaceful 
arts  would  find  serious  listeners.  They  them- 
selves held  that  belief  as  a  working  incentive 
twenty  years  ago,  but  experience  has  dissipated 
it,  and  they  now  know  that  the  world  never  took 
any  respectful  notice  of  them  until  they  showed 
themselves  capable  of  winning  battles.  At  first 
they  imagined  that  they  might  efface  the  Oriental 
stigma  by  living  up  to  civilised  standards.  But 
the  success  they  had  attained  was  scarcely  per- 
ceptible when  suddenly  their  victorious  war  with 
China  seemed  to  win  for  them  more  esteem  in 
half  a  year  than  their  peaceful  industry  had  won 
for  them  in  half  a  century.  The  perception  of 
that  fact  upset  their  estimate  of  the  qualifications 
necessary  for  a  place  in  "  the  foremost  files  of 
time/'  and  had  much  to  do  with  the  desire  they 
henceforth  developed  for  expanded  armaments. 
Their  military  and  naval  forces  had  been  proved 
competent  to  beat  China  to  her  knees  with  the 
utmost  ease,  yet  they  proceeded  at  once  to  double 
their  army.  Onlookers  watch  these  doings  with 
interest  and  speculate  whether  Japan's  financial 
resources  can  bear  such  a  strain,  but  do  not  seem 
to  consider  seriously  what  it  all  signifies,  or  how 
Japan  accounts  to  her  own  conscience  for  these 
extravagances.  Yet  the  answer  appears  to  lie  not 
far  from  the  surface.  To  reach  it  we  must  first 
recognise  why  she  drew  the  sword  against  China 
in  1894,  —  not  the  approximate  cause  of  the 
struggle,  but  its  remote  cause.  The  approximate 

16 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

cause  is  readily  discernible.  China's  attitude 
towards  Korea,  her  fitful  interference  in  the  little 
kingdom's  affairs,  her  exercise  of  suzerain  rights 
while  uniformly  disclaiming  suzerain  responsibili- 
ties, created  a  situation  intolerable  to  Japan,  who 
had  concluded  a  treaty  with  Korea  on  the  avowed 
basis  of  the  latter's  independence.  A  consenting 
party  to  that  treaty,  China  nevertheless  ignored 
it  in  practice,  partly  because  she  despised  the 
Japanese  and  resented  their  apostasy  from  Ori- 
ental traditions,  but  chiefly  because  her  ineffable 
faith  in  her  own  superiority  to  outside  nations 
absolved  her  from  any  obligation  to  respect  their 
conventions.  Japan's  material  and  political  in- 
terests in  Korea  outweigh  those  of  all  other  States 
put  together.  In  asserting  her  commercial  rights 
she  could  not  possibly  avoid  collision  with  a 
Power  behaving  as  China  behaved.  But  there 
was  another  force  pushing  the  two  States  into 
the  arena  :  they  had  to  do  battle  for  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Far  East.  China,  of  course,  did  not 
regard  the  issue  in  that  light.  It  was  part  of  her 
immemorial  faith  in  her  own  transcendence  that 
the  possibility  of  being  challenged  should  never 
occur  to  her.  But  Japan's  case  was  different. 
Her  position  might  be  compared  to  that  of  a  lad 
who  had  to  win  a  standing  for  himself  in  a  new 
school  by  beating  the  head  boy  of  his  form. 
China  was  the  head  boy  of  the  East-Asian  form. 
Her  huge  dimensions,  her  vast  resources,  her  ap- 
parently inexhaustible  "  staying  power,"  entitled 
2  17 


JAPAN 

her  to  that  position,  and  outside  nations  accorded 
it  to  her.  To  worst  her  meant  to  leap  at  one 
bound  to  the  hegemony  of  the  Far  East.  That 
was  the  quickest  exit  from  the  shadow  of  Oriental- 
ism, and  Japan  took  it.  This  is  not  a  suggestion 
that  she  forced  a  fight  upon  her  neighbour  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  her  own  superior- 
ity. What  it  means  is  that  the  causes  which  led 
to  the  fight  had  their  remote  origin  in  the  differ- 
ent attitudes  of  the  two  countries  towards  West- 
ern civilisation.  Having  cordially  embraced  that 
civilisation,  Japan  could  not  consent  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  contempt  with  which  China  re- 
garded it ;  and  having  set  out  to  climb  to  the 
level  of  Occidental  nations,  she  had  to  begin  by 
emerging  from  the  ranks  of  Oriental  nations. 

This  analysis,  if  we  push  it  to  its  logical  sequel, 
brings  us  into  the  presence  of  a  startling  conclu- 
sion. Japan  has  risen  to  the  headship  of  the  Far 
East.  Is  that  the  goal  of  her  ambition  ?  One 
of  her  favourite  sayings  is,  "  Better  be  the  tail  of 
an  ox  than  the  comb  of  a  cock."  She  is  now 
the  comb  of  the  Oriental  cock.  That  is  not 
enough :  she  wants  to  be  the  tail  of  the  Occi- 
dental ox.  How  is  it  to  be  done  ?  Evidently 
by  following  the  route  that  has  already  led  her 
so  far.  She  cannot  turn  back.  Her  destiny 
forces  her  on,  and  there  is  no  mistaking  the  sign- 
post set  up  by  her  recent  experience.  She  has 
been  taught  that  fighting  capacity  is  the  only  sure 
passport  to  European  esteem,  and  she  has  also 

18 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

been  told  again  and  again,  is  still  perpetually 
told,  that  her  victory  over  China  proved  nothing 
about  her  competence  to  stand  in  the  lists  of  the 
West.  She  will  complete  the  proof,  or  try  to 
complete  it.  Nothing  is  more  certain,  nothing 
more  apparent  to  all  that  have  watched  her 
closely.  Perhaps  she  has  not  yet  formulated  the 
project  to  herself  in  explicit  terms.  But  it  has 
found  a  lodgment  in  her  heart,  and  uncon- 
sciously she  is  moulding  her  actions  in  obedience 
to  it. 

These  are  the  reasons  that  render  Japan  such 
an  interesting  figure.  She  rivets  our  attention, 
not  by  what  she  has  done,  however  remarkable 
that  may  seem,  but  rather  by  what  she  must  still 
try  to  do.  She  has  undertaken  to  demonstrate 
that  an  Eastern  nation  can  act  a  leading  part  on 
the  same  stage  with  Western  peoples,  using  the 
same  properties  and  obeying  the  same  directions. 
It  is  the  first  essay  of  the  kind  in  history,  and  it 
will  not  be  consummated  without  some  stirring 
episodes. 

From  a  physical  point  of  view  the  Japanese 
race  seems  ill  fitted  for  the  competition  upon 
which  it  has  entered  and  for  the  grim  struggle 
that  lies  before  it.  An  army  of  Japanese  is  to 
an  army  of  Europeans  in  respect  of  stature  what 
an  army  of  females  in  the  Occident  would  be 
to  an  army  of  males.  But  the  same  might  be 
said  of  the  Sepoys  or  the  Ghoorkas ;  yet  no 
English  general,  estimating  the  results  of  a  colli- 

19 


JAPAN 

sion  between  Indian  troops  and  Europeans,  would 
think  of  counting  the  inches  of  the  Ghoorka  or 
the  Sepoy.  The  Japanese,  indeed,  resemble  the 
Ghoorkas  very  closely.  There  is  the  same  light- 
ness of  movement,  the  same  admirable  balance  of 
muscle  and  bone,  the  same  symmetry  of  form  and 
power  of  endurance.  A  very  marked  advantage 
in  height  is  on  the  side  of  the  Chinaman  ;  so 
marked  that  from  ancient  times  he  has  been 
accustomed  to  call  the  Japanese  "pygmies." 
Nevertheless,  in  the  war  of  1894—95  t^le  Chinese 
went  down  helplessly  before  the  Japanese  wher- 
ever the  two  met.  The  same  difference  of  bulk 
exists  in  favour  of  the  Korean,  yet  an  even  greater 
difference  of  righting  capacity  has  been  practi- 
cally established  in  favour  of  the  Japanese.  There 
is  thus  no  reason  to  argue  any  physical  disability 
on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  to  take  a  successful 
part  in  a  warlike  struggle ;  and  in  the  Chili  cam- 
paign of  1900,  when  they  marched  in  the  van 
of  Europe  and  America  to  the  relief  of  Peking, 
they  showed  themselves  at  least  as  efficient  as  the 
soldiers  of  any  other  nationality.  They  have  two 
very  marked  advantages :  the  simplicity  of  their 
diet,  which  immensely  facilitates  commissariat 
arrangements  ;  and  the  excellence  of  their  officers. 
It  was  owing  in  great  part  to  the  former  fact  that 
their  war  with  China  in  1894-95  cost  them  only 
twenty  million  pounds  sterling.  They  conducted 
seven  campaigns  over-sea,  involving  a  force  of 
a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  and  they 

20 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

employed   a   navy   of   twenty-eight   ships  which 
remained  on  active  service  for  nine  months. 

It  was  the  cheapest  belligerent  feat  on  record, 
and  it  established  for  the  Japanese  the  possession 
of  a  faculty  which  had  been  habitually  denied 
to  them  by  foreign  critics,  the  faculty  of  organi- 
sation. For  the  purposes  of  that  war  their  organ- 
isation was  really  admirable.  Such  an  effort  might 
have  been  expected  to  tax  their  strength  to  the 
utmost,  to  interrupt  the  course  of  every-day  busi- 
ness, and  to  throw  their  domestic  affairs  into  more 
or  less  confusion.  It  did  nothing  of  the  kind. 
The  home  life  of  the  people  went  on  placidly 
and  regularly,  as  though  not  a  ship  or  a  soldier 
had  been  sent  to  meet  a  foreign  enemy.  Some- 
times a  little  village  community  left  their  farm 
labours  to  cheer  a  detachment  of  troops  en  route 
for  Manchuria  or  Korea,  and  sometimes  the  arri- 
val of  a  batch  of  wounded  Chinese  created  a  pass- 
ing thrill  of  excitement.  But,  for  the  rest,  the 
great  fighting  machine  worked  with  absolute 
silence  and  smoothness.  The  troops,  carried 
over  specially  constructed  railways  outside  the 
boundaries  of  the  chief  cities,  or  marched  quietly 
at  night  through  their  streets,  seldom  attracted 
public  attention  ;  the  fleet  of  fifty  steam  trans- 
ports was  descried  once  or  twice  gliding  through 
the  narrow  strait  that  gives  upon  the  China  Sea, 
but  never  came  into  the  vista  of  national  observa- 
tion ;  the  newspapers  reported  yesterday  that  an 
army  corps  of  twenty  thousand  men  had  embarked 

21 


JAPAN 

for  Liaotung,  to-day  that  an  equal  force  had  landed 
in  Shantung,  but  if  these  troops  had  sprung,  fully 
equipped,  from  the  sea  at  the  place  of  their  exit 
or  destination,  the  country  could  not  have  known 
less  of  their  comings  and  goings.  There  were  no 
accidents,  no  miscarriages,  no  apparent  errors  of 
calculation  or  failures  of  foresight.  One  may  urge, 
indeed,  that  neither  was  there  any  originality,  since 
European  modes  were  followed.  But  it  is  certain 
that  before  the  war  no  foreign  critic  would  have 
credited  the  Japanese  with  capacity  to  conduct 
such  operations.  He  would  have  denied  their 
power  of  organisation,  and  he  is  therefore  con- 
strained to  attach  as  much  value  to  the  positive 
evidence  of  success  as  he  would  have  inferred  from 
the  negative  testimony  of  failure. 

In  truth  this  favourite  theory  about  a  want  of 
organising  faculty  among  the  Japanese,  like  that 
other  theory  about  their  want  of  originality,  rests 
on  pure  hypothesis  aided  by  ignorance  of  history. 
To  ascribe  lack  of  originality  to  a  nation  which 
has  given  the  world  a  new  grammar  of  decorative 
art  is  as  consistent  with  facts  as  to  allege  absence 
of  organising  ability  among  a  people  who  have 
produced  a  Yoritomo,  a  Hideyoshi,  and  an  leyasu. 
The  two  criticisms  may  be  definitely  dismissed. 

And  the  officers  that  commanded  in  the  field 
showed  themselves  as  able  as  those  that  planned 
in  the  Cabinet.  They  shared  every  hardship  that 
their  men  endured,  ate  the  same  food,  were  con- 
tent with  the  same  shelter,  and  took  the  larger 

22 


PRESENT     JAPAN 

share  of  danger.  The  Japanese  officer  has  this 
fine  quality,  that  to  a  hereditary  love  of  fighting 
he  adds  the  zeal  of  a  professional  soldier.  His 
heart  is  in  his  calling.  He  loves  his  uniform,  has 
no  aim  in  life  higher  than  the  discharge  of  his 
duty,  and  possesses  the  capacity  for  obedience 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  power  to  command. 

There  is  nothing  decrepit  about  such  a  nation. 
It  is  old  in  years,  but  the  infused  blood  of  West- 
ern civilisation  has  renewed  its  youth.  The  first 
result  of  its  debut  on  the  world's  stage  has  there- 
fore been  territorial  expansion,  a  fact  sufficiently 
significant  to  stand  at  the  head  of  these  pages. 

Japan  would  go  far  if  she  were  not  crippled 
by  a  heavy  handicap,  want  of  money.  She  has 
been  called  the  "  England  of  the  East ;  "  but  she 
differs  radically  from  England  in  this  vital  respect 
that  whereas  Imperial  England  has  only  to  follow 
whither  the  capital  of  commercial  and  industrial 
England  overflows,  industrial  and  commercial 
Japan  is  quite  unable  to  utilise  the  opportunities 
which  Imperial  Japan  creates.  In  China  and  Korea, 
Japanese  diplomacy  or  Japanese  armed  strength 
has  won  valuable  privileges  and  opened  wide 
fields,  but  they  remain  to  this  day  almost  entirely 
unfruitful.  Even  in  the  home  country  the  devel- 
opment of  many  promising  enterprises  is  delayed 
for  lack  of  funds.  Everything  is  on  a  petty  scale. 
There  is  not  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land  a  factory  or  a  tradal  organisation  that 
would  be  counted  of  even  mediocre  importance 


JAPAN 

in  America  or  England.  Seventy  per  cent  of  the 
nation's  school-age  children  receive  instruction, 
yet  the  total  sum  annually  expended  on  this  edu- 
cation is  not  twice  the  yearly  income  of  one  of 
the  great  colleges  of  the  United  States.  The 
aggregate  capital  invested  in  all  the  banks,  indus- 
trial, commercial,  insurance,  shipping,  and  agri- 
cultural companies  throughout  the  empire  is  less 
than  the  fortune  of  a  Rockefeller  or  a  Vanderbilt. 
Many  widow's  mites  are  given  to  relieve  distress, 
but  the  whole  of  the  charitable  and  philanthropic 
donations  made  by  private  individuals  during  the 
thirty-two  years  of  the  Meiji  era  would  look  small 
by  the  side  of  a  respectable  Mansion  House  fund. 
So  lilliputian  are  the  dimensions  of  the  market 
that  a  single  speculation  disturbs  it.  Consols  are 
quoted,  say  at  95,  but  a  purchase  or  sale  of  half 
a  million  dollars'  worth  would  drive  them  up  to 
96  or  more.  The  spirit  of  enterprise,  stunted  by 
this  atmosphere  of  impecuniosity  at  home,  natur- 
ally makes  no  excursions  abroad.  Railways  wait 
in  vain  to  be  built  by  Japanese  in  Korea,  new 
settlements  to  be  colonised  in  China,  large  re- 
sources to  be  exploited  in  Formosa. 

There  remains,  too,  a  disposition  inherited 
from  feudal  times,  a  tendency  to  rely  on  official 
initiative  and  to  shrink  from  every  venture  un- 
aided by  the  State.  Nearly  all  the  material 
progress  of  the  Meiji  era  has  been  led  by  the 
Government.  Matters  have  greatly  mended  in 
that  respect,  but  the  writings  of  the  vernacular 

24 


PRESENT    JAPAN 

journals,  with  few  exceptions,  still  show  that 
instead  of  making  opportunities  for  themselves, 
the  people  look  to  have  them  made  for  them 
officially.  If  they  had  stores  of  spare  capital 
seeking  investment,  they  would  act  a  very  dif- 
ferent part  on  the  neighbouring  continent.  But 
chill  poverty  freezes  the  current  of  their  activity, 
and  while  they  have  an  abundance  of  the  im- 
perial instinct,  they  lack  the  means  of  making  it 
potential.  That  difficulty  must  cripple  Japan 
seriously.  A  poor  nation  has  never  been  great. 
She  may  succeed  in  filling  her  purse  before  the 
time  comes  to  open  it,  but  no  resources  now  in 
sight  definitely  promise  such  a  result.  All  that 
can  be  said  of  her  is  that  she  has  boundless 
ambition  ;  that  she  has  established  her  ability  to 
reach  great  ends  with  small  means,  and  that  she 
will  certainly  bid  for  a  far  higher  place  than 
she  has  yet  attained. 


Chapter  II 

PRIMEVAL   JAPANESE 


I 


are  three  written  records  of 
Japan's  early  history.  The  oldest l  of 
them  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
eighth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and 
deals  with  events  extending  back  for  fourteen 
hundred  years.  The  compilation  of  this  work 
was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  feats  ever 
undertaken.  The  compiler  had  to  construct  the 
sounds  of  his  own  tongue  by  means  of  ideographs 
devised  for  transcribing  a  foreign  language.  He 
had  to  render  Japanese  phonetically  by  using 
Chinese  ideographs.  It  was  as  though  a  man 
should  set  himself  to  commit  Shakespeare's  plays 
to  writing  by  the  aid  of  the  cuneiform  characters 
of  Babylon.  A  book  composed  in  the  face  of 
such  difficulties  could  not  convey  a  very  clear 
idea  of  contemporary  speech  or  thought.  The 
same  is  true,  though  in  a  less  degree,  of  the  other 
two 2  volumes  on  which  it  is  necessary  to  rely  for 
knowledge  of  ancient  Japan. 

It  might   reasonably   be    anticipated,    arguing 
from   the   analogy  of  other  nations,    that    some 

1  See  Appendix,  note  2.  2  See  Appendix,  note  3. 

26 


PRIMAEVAL     JAPANESE 

plain  practical  theory  would  exist  among  the 
Japanese  as  to  their  own  origin ;  that  tradition 
would  have  supplied  for  them  a  proud  creed 
identifying  their  forefathers  with  some  of  the 
renowned  peoples  of  the  earth,  and  that  if  the 
progenitors  of  the  nimble-witted,  active-bodied, 
refined,  and  high-spirited  people  now  bidding  so 
earnestly  for  a  place  in  the  comity  of  great 
nations,  had  migrated  originally  from  a  land 
peopled  by  men  possessing  qualities  such  as  they 
themselves  have  for  centuries  displayed,  many 
annals  descriptive  of  their  primaeval  home  would 
have  been  handed  down  through  the  ages. 
There  are  no  such  theories,  no  such  annals,  no 
such  traditions. 

When  the  Japanese  first  undertook  to  explain 
their  own  origin  in  the  three  books  spoken  of 
above,  so  unfettered  were  they  by  genuine  remi- 
niscences that  they  immediately  had  recourse  to 
the  supernatural  and  derived  themselves  from 
heaven.  Reduced  to  its  fundamental  outlines, 
the  legend  they  set  down  was  that,  in  the  earliest 
times,  a  group  of  the  divine  dwellers  in  the  plains 
of  high  heaven  descended  to  a  place  with  a  now 
unidentifiable  name,  and  thence  gradually  pushing 
eastward,  established  themselves  in  the  "  land  of 
sunrise,"  giving  to  it  a  race  of  monarchs,  direct 
scions  of  the  goddess  of  light  (Amaterasu).  Many 
things  are  related  about  these  heaven-sent  folk 
who  peopled  Japan  hundreds  of  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  They  are  things  that  must  be 


JAPAN 

studied  by  any  one  desiring  to  make  himself 
acquainted  with  the  essence  of  her  indigenous 
religion  or  her  pictorial  and  decorative  arts,  for 
they  there  play  a  picturesque  and  prominent  part. 
But  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  sober  history. 
Possibly  it  may  be  urged  that  nations  whose  tra- 
ditions deal  with  a  Mount  Sinai,  a  pillar  of  cloud 
and  fire,  and  an  immaculate  conception,  have  no 
right  to  reject  everything  supernatural  in  Oriental 
annals.  That  superficial  retort  has,  indeed,  been 
made  too  often.  But  behind  it  there  undoubtedly 
lurks  in  the  inner  consciousness  of  the  educated 
and  intelligent  Japanese  a  resolve  not  to  scrutinise 
these  things  too  closely.  Whether  or  not  the 
"  age  of  the  gods  "  —  kami  no  yo  —  of  which,  as 
a  child,  he  reads  with  implicit  credence,  and  of 
which,  as  a  man,  he  recognises  the  political  uses, 
should  be  openly  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  ab- 
surdities ;  whether  the  deities  had  to  take  part  in 
an  immodest  dance  in  order  to  lure  the  offended 
Sun  Goddess  from  a  cave  to  which  her  brother's 
rudeness  had  driven  her,  thus  plunging  the  uni- 
verse in  darkness ;  whether  the  god  of  impulse 
fought  with  the  god  of  fire  on  the  shores  of  the 
Island  of  Nine  Provinces ;  whether  the  procrea- 
tive  divinities  were  inspired  by  a  bird ;  whether 
the  germs  of  a  new  civilisation  were  carried  across 
the  sea  by  a  prince  begotten  of  the  sunshine  and 
born  in  the  shape  of  a  crimson  jewel,  —  these  are 
not  problems  that  receive  very  serious  considera- 
tion in  Japan,  though  neither  a  Colenso  nor  a 

28 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

Huxley  has  yet  arisen  to  attack  them  publicly. 
They  are  rather  allegories  from  which  emerges 
the  serviceable  political  doctrine  that  the  emper- 
ors of  Japan,  being  of  divine  origin,  rule  by  divine 
right.  It  is  the  Japanese  historian's  method,  or 
the  Japanese  mythologist's  manner,  of  describing 
an  attribute  claimed  until  very  recently  by  all 
Occidental  sovereigns,  and  still  asserted  on  behalf 
of  some.  As  for  the  foreign  student  of  Japan's 
ancient  history,  these  weird  myths  and  romantic 
allegories  have  induced  him  to  dismiss  it  as  a 
purely  imaginary  product  of  later-day  imagina- 
tion. The  transcendental  elements  woven  into 
parts  of  the  narrative  discredit  the  whole  in  his 
eyes.  And  his  scepticism  is  fortified  by  a  gener- 
ally accepted  hypothesis  that  the  events  of  the 
thirteen  opening  centuries  of  the  story  were  pre- 
served solely  by  oral  tradition.  The  three  vol- 
umes which  profess  to  tell  about  the  primaeval 
creators  of  Japan,  about  Jimmu,  the  first  mortal 
ruler,  and  about  his  human  successors  during  a 
dozen  centuries,  are  supposed  to  be  a  collection 
of  previously  unwritten  recollections,  and  it  seems 
only  logical  to  doubt  whether  the  outlines  of 
figures  standing  at  the  end  of  such  a  long  avenue 
of  hearsay  can  be  anything  but  imaginary.  Pos- 
sibly that  disbelief  is  too  wholesale.  Possibly  it 
is  too  much  to  conclude  that  the  Japanese  had 
no  kind  of  writing  prior  to  their  acquisition  of 
Chinese  ideographs  in  the  fifth  century  of  the 
Christian  era.  But  there  is  little  apparent  hope 

29 


JAPAN 

that  the  student  will  ever  be  in  a  position  to 
decide  these  questions  conclusively.  He  must  be 
content  for  the  present  to  regard  the  annals  of 
primaeval  Japan  as  an  assemblage  of  heterogene- 
ous fragments  from  the  traditions  of  South  Sea 
islanders,  of  central  Asian  tribes,  of  Manchurian 
Tartars  and  of  Siberian  savages,  who  reached  her 
shores  at  various  epochs,  sometimes  drifted  by 
ocean  currents,  sometimes  crossing  by  ice-built 
bridges,  sometimes  migrating  by  less  fortuitous 
routes. 

What  these  records,  stripped  of  all  their  fabu- 
lous features,  have  to  tell  is  this  :  — 

At  a  remote  date,  a  certain  race  of  highly 
civilised  men  —  highly  civilised  by  comparison  — 
arrived  at  the  islands  of  Japan.  Migrating  from 
the  south,  the  adventurers  landed  on  the  Southern 
island,  Kiushiu,  and  found  a  fair  country,  covered 
with  luxurious  vegetation  and  sparsely  populated 
by  savages  living  like  beasts  of  the  field,  having 
no  organised  system  of  administration  and  inca- 
pable of  offering  permanent  resistance  to  the  supe- 
rior weapons  and  discipline  of  the  invaders,  who 
established  themselves  with  little  difficulty  in  the 
newly  found  land.  But  on  the  main  island  two 
races  of  men  very  different  from  these  savages 
had  already  gained  a  footing.  One  had  its  head- 
quarters in  the  province  of  Izumo,  and  claimed 
sovereignty  over  the  whole  country.  The  other 
was  concentrated  in  Yamato.  Neither  of  these 
races  knew  of  the  other's  existence,  Izumo  and 

30 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

Yamato  being  far  apart.  At  the  outset,  the 
immigrants  who  had  newly  arrived  in  Kiushiu, 
imagined  that  they  had  to  deal  with  the  Izumo 
folk  only.  They  began  by  sending  envoys.  The 
first  of  these,  bribed  by  the  Izumo  rulers,  made 
his  home  in  the  land  he  had  been  sent  to  spy  out. 
The  second  forgot  his  duty  in  the  arms  of  an 
Izumo  beauty  whose  hair  fell  to  her  ankles. 
The  third  discharged  his  mission  faithfully,  but 
was  put  to  death  in  Izumo.  The  sequel  of  this 
somewhat  commonplace  series  of  events  was 
war.  Putting  forth  their  full  strength,  the  south- 
ern invaders  shattered  the  power  of  the  Izumo 
court  and  received  its  submission.  But  they  did 
not  transfer  their  own  court  to  the  conquered 
province.  Ignorant  that  Izumo  was  a  mere  frac- 
tion of  the  main  island,  they  imagined  that  no 
more  regions  remained  to  be  subjugated.  By  and 
by  they  discovered  their  mistake.  Intelligence 
reached  them  that,  far  away  in  the  northeast, 
a  race  of  highly  civilised  men,  who  had  origi- 
nally come  from  beyond  the  sea  in  ships,  were 
settled  in  the  province  of  Yamato,  holding  undis- 
puted sway.  To  the  conquest  of  these  colonists 
Jimmu,  who  then  ruled  the  southern  immigrants, 
set  out  on  a  campaign  which  lasted  fifteen  years, 
and  ended,  after  some  fierce  fighting,  in  the 
Yamato  rulers'  acknowledging  their  consanguin- 
ity with  the  invader  and  abdicating  in  his  favour. 
Whether  Jimmu's  story  be  purely  a  figment 
of  later-day  imagination  or  whether  it  consists  of 

3' 


JAPAN 

poetically  embellished  facts,  there  can  be  no 
question  about  its  interest,  since  it  shows  the 
kind  of  hero  that  subsequent  generations  were 
disposed  to  picture  as  the  founder  of  the  sacred 
dynasty,  the  chief  of  the  Japanese  race.  The 
youngest  of  four  sons,  he  was  nevertheless  selected 
by  his  "  divine  "  father  to  succeed  to  the  ruler- 
ship  of  the  little  colony  of  immigrants  then 
settled  in  Kiushiu,  and  his  elder  brothers  obedi- 
ently recognised  this  right  of  choice.  He  was 
not  then  called  "  Jimmu "  :  that  is  his  posthu- 
mous name.  Sanu,  or  Hiko  Hohodemi,  was  his 
appellation,  and  he  is  represented  in  the  light  of 
a  kind  of  viking.  Learning  of  Yamato  and  its 
rulers  from  a  traveller  who  visited  Kiushiu,  he 
embarked  all  his  available  forces  in  war-vessels 
and  set  out  upon  a  tour  of  aggression.  Creeping 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  Kiushiu,  and  finally 
entering  the  Inland  Sea,  the  adventurers  fought 
their  way  from  point  to  point,  landing  sometimes 
to  do  battle  with  native  tribes,  sometimes  to 
construct  new  war-junks,  until,  after  fifteen  years 
of  fighting  and  wandering,  they  finally  emerged 
from  the  northern  end  of  the  Inland  Sea,  and 
established  themselves  in  Yamato,  destined  to  be 
thenceforth  the  Imperial  province  of  Japan.  In 
this  long  series  of  campaigns  the  chieftain  lost 
his  three  brothers  :  one  fell  in  fight ;  two  threw 
themselves  into  the  sea  to  calm  a  tempest  that 
threatened  to  destroy  the  flotilla.  Such  are  the 
deaths  that  Japanese  in  all  ages  have  regarded  as 

32 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

ideal  exits  from  this  mortal  scene ;  deaths  by  the 
sword  and  deaths  of  loyal  self-sacrifice.  To  the 
leader  himself,  after  his  decease,  the  posthumous 
name  of  Jimmu,  or  "  the  man  of  divine  bravery," 
was  given,  typifying  the  honour  that  has  always 
attached  to  the  profession  of  arms  in  Japan. 
The  distance  from  this  primitive  viking's  starting- 
point  to  the  place  where  he  established  his  capital 
and  consummated  his  career  of  conquest,  can 
easily  be  traversed  by  a  modern  steamer  in  twice 
as  many  hours  as  the  number  of  years  devoted  by 
Jimmu  and  his  followers  to  the  task.  That  the 
craft  in  which  they  travelled  were  of  the  most 
inefficient  type,  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  the  viking's  progress  eastward  would  have 
been  finally  interrupted  by  the  narrow  strip  of 
water  dividing  Kiushiu  from  the  main  island 
of  Japan,  had  not  a  fisherman  seated  on  a  turtle 
erriboldened  him  to  strike  sea-ward.  Thence- 
forth the  turtle  assumed  a  leading  place  in  the 
mythology  of  Japan,  —  the  type  of  longevity, 
the  messenger  of  the  marine  deity,  who  dwelt  in 
the  crystal  depths  of  the  ocean,  his  palace  peopled 
by  lovely  maidens.  The  goddess  of  the  sun  shone 
on  Jimmu' s  enterprise  at  times  when  tempest  or 
fog  threatened  serious  peril,  and  a  kite,  circling 
overhead,  indicated  the  direction  of  inhabited 
districts  when  he  and  his  warriors  had  lost  their 
way  among  mountains  and  forests. 

How   much   of  all    this   was    transmitted    by 
tradition,   written   or  oral,  to  the  compilers  of 
3  33 


JAPAN 

Jimmu's  history  in  the  eighth  century ;  how 
much  was  a  mere  reflection  of  national  customs 
which  had  then  become  sacred,  and  on  which 
the  political  scholars  of  the  time  desired  to  set 
the  seal  of  antique  sanction,  who  shall  determine  ? 
If  Sanu  and  his  warriors  brought  with  them  the 
worship  of  the  sun,  that  would  offer  an  interesting 
inference  as  to  their  origin.  If  the  aid  that  they 
received  from  his  light  was  suggested  solely  by 
the  grateful  homage  that  rice-cultivators,  thirteen 
centuries  later,  had  learned  to  pay  to  his  benefi- 
cence, then  the  oldest  written  records  of  Japan 
must  be  read  as  mere  transcripts  of  the  faiths  and 
fashions  of  the  era  when  they  were  compiled,  not 
as  genuine  traditions  transmitted  from  previous 
ages.  But  such  distinctions  have  never  been 
recognised  by  the  Japanese.  With  them  these 
annals  of  their  race's  beginnings  have  always 
commanded  as  inviolable  credence  as  the  Testa- 
ments of  Christianity  used  to  command  in  the 
Occident.  From  the  lithographs  that  embellish 
modern  bank-notes  the  sun  looks  down  on  the 
semi-divine  conqueror,  Jimmu,  and  receives  his 
homage.  From  the  grand  cordon  of  an  order 
instituted  by  his  hundred  and  twenty-seventh 
successor,  depends  the  kite  that  guided  him 
through  mountain  fastnesses,  and  on  a  thousand 
works  of  art  the  genius  of  the  tortoise  shows  him 
the  path  across  the  ocean.  If  these  picturesque 
elements  were  added  by  subsequent  writers  to  the 
outlines  of  an  ordinary  armed  invasion  by  foreign 

34 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

adventurers,  the  nation  has  received  them  and 
cherishes  them  to  this  day  as  articles  of  a  sacred 
faith. 

The  annals  here  briefly  summarised  reveal  three 
tides  of  more  or  less  civilised  immigrants  and  a 
race  of  semi-barbarous  autochthons.  All  the 
learned  researches  of  modern  archaeologists  and 
ethnologists  do  not  teach  us  much  more.  It  is 
now  known  with  tolerable  certainty  that  the 
so-called  autochthons  were  composed  of  two 
swarms  of  colonists,  both  coming  from  Siberia, 
though  their  advents  were  separated  by  a  long 
interval. 

The  first,  archasologically  indicated  by  pit- 
dwellings  and  shell-mounds  still  extant,  were  the 
Koro-pok-guru,  or  "  cave-men."  They  are  believed 
to  be  represented  to-day  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Saghalien,  the  Kuriles  and  Southern  Kamschatka. 

The  second  were  the  Ainu,  a  flat-faced,  heavy- 
jawed,  hirsute  people,  who  completely  drove  out 
their  predecessors  and  took  possession  of  the  land. 
The  Ainu  of  that  period  had  much  in  common 
with  animals.  They  burrowed  in  the  ground  for 
shelter ;  they  recognised  no  distinctions  of  sex  in 
apparel  or  of  consanguinity  in  intercourse ;  they 
clad  themselves  in  skins  ;  they  drank  blood  ;  they 
practised  cannibalism ;  they  were  insensible  to  ben- 
efits and  perpetually  resentful  of  injuries  ;  they  re- 
sorted to  savagely  cruel  forms  of  punishment,  — 
severing  the  tendons  of  the  leg,  boiling  the  arms, 
slicing  off  the  nose,  etc. ;  they  used  stone  im- 

35 


JAPAN 

plements,  and,  unceasingly  resisting  the  civilised 
immigrants  who  subsequently  reached  the  islands, 
they  were  driven  northward  by  degrees,  and  finally 
pushed  across  the  Tsugaru  Strait  into  the  island 
of  Yezo.  That  long  struggle,  and  the  disasters  and 
sufferings  it  entailed,  radically  changed  the  nature 
of  the  Ainu.  They  became  timid,  gentle,  submis- 
sive folk ;  lost  most  of  the  faculties  essential  to 
survival  in  a  racial  contest,  and  dwindled  to  a 
mere  remnant  of  semi-savages,  incapable  of  prog- 
ress, indifferent  to  improvement,  and  presenting 
a  more  and  more  vivid  contrast  to  the  energetic, 
intelligent,  and  ambitious  Japanese. 

But  these  Japanese  — who  were  they  originally  ? 
Whence  did  the  three  or  more  tides  of  immigration 
set  which  ultimately  coalesced  to  form  the  race 
now  standing  at  the  head  of  Oriental  peoples  ? 
Strangely  varying  answers  to  this  question  have 
been  furnished.  Kampfer  persuaded  himself  that 
the  primaeval  Japanese  were  a  section  of  the  build- 
ers of  the  Tower  of  Babel.  Hyde-Clarke  identi- 
fied them  with  Turano-Africans  who  travelled 
eastward  through  Egypt,  China,  and  Japan.  Mac- 
leod  recognised  in  them  one  of  the  lost  tribes  of 
Israel.  Several  writers  have  regarded  them  as 
Malayan  colonists.  Griffin  was  content  to  think 
that  they  are  modern  Ainu,  and  recent  scholars 
incline  to  the  belief  that  they  belonged  to  the 
Tartar-Mongolian  stock  of  Central  Asia.  Some- 
thing of  this  diversity  of  view  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  Japanese  are  not  a  pure  race.  They  pre- 

36 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

sent  several  easily  distinguishable  types,  notably  the 
patrician  and  the  plebeian.  This  is  not  a  question 
of  mere  coarseness  in  contrast  with  refinement ; 
of  the  degeneration  due  to  toil  and  exposure  as 
compared  with  the  improvement  produced  by 
gentle  living  and  mental  culture.  The  repre- 
sentative of  the  Japanese  plebs  has  a  conspicu- 
ously dark  skin,  prominent  cheek  bones,  a  large 
mouth,  a  robust  and  heavily  boned  physique, 
a  flat  nose,  full  straight  eyes,  and  a  receding 
forehead.  The  aristocratic  type  is  symmetrically 
and  delicately  built ;  his  complexion  varies  from 
yellow  to  almost  pure  white  ;  his  eyes  are  narrow, 
set  obliquely  to  the  nose ;  the  eyelids  heavy ;  the 
eyebrows  lofty ;  the  mouth  small ;  the  face  oval ; 
the  nose  aquiline  ;  the  hand  remarkably  slender 
and  supple. 

Here  are  two  radically  distinct  types.  What 
is  more,  they  have  been  distinguished  by  the  Jap- 
anese themselves  ever  since  any  method  of  record- 
ing such  distinctions  existed.  For  from  the  time 
when  he  first  began  to  paint  pictures,  the  Japan- 
ese artist  recognised  and  represented  only  one  type 
of  male  and  female  beauty,  namely,  that  distin- 
guished in  a  marked,  often  an  exaggerated,  degree 
by  the  features  enumerated  above  as  belonging  to 
the  patrician  class.  There  has  been  no  evolution 
in  this  matter.  The  painter  had  as  clear  a  con- 
ception of  his  type  ten  centuries  ago  as  he  has 
to-day.  Nothing  seems  more  natural  than  the 
supposition  that  this  higher  type  represents  the 

37 


JAPAN 

finally  dominant  race  of  immigrants ;  the  lower, 
their  less  civilised  opponents. 

The  theory  which  seems  to  fit  the  facts  best  is 
that  the  Japanese  are  compounded  of  elements 
from  Central  and  Southern  Asia,  and  that  they 
received  their  patrician  type  from  the  former, 
their  plebeian  from  the  latter.  The  Asiatic 
colonists  arrived  via  Korea.  But  they  were 
neither  Koreans  nor  Chinese.  That  seems  certain, 
though  the  evidence  which  proves  it  cannot  be 
detailed  here.  Chinese  and  Koreans  came  from 
time  to  time  in  later  ages ;  came  occasionally  in 
great  numbers,  and  were  absorbed  into  the 
Japanese  race,  leaving  on  it  some  faint  traces  of 
the  amalgamation.  But  the  original  colonists 
did  not  set  out  from  either  China  or  Korea. 
Their  birthplace  was  somewhere  in  the  north 
of  Central  Asia.  As  for  the  South-Asian  immi- 
grants, they  were  drifted  to  Japan  by  a  strange 
current  called  the  "  Black  Tide "  (Kuro-shiwo], 
which  sweeps  northward  from  the  Philippines, 
and  bending  thence  towards  the  east,  touches  the 
promontory  of  Kii  and  Yamato  before  shaping 
its  course  permanently  away  from  the  main 
island  of  Japan.  It  is  true  that  in  the  chrono- 
logical order  suggested  by  early  history  the 
southern  colonists  succeeded  the  northern  and  are 
supposed  to  have  gained  the  mastery ;  whereas 
among  the  Japanese,  as  we  now  see  them,  the 
supremacy  of  the  northern  type  appears  to  have 
been  established  for  ages.  That  may  be  ex- 

38 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

plained,  however,  by  an  easy  hypothesis,  namely, 
that  although  the  onset  of  the  impetuous  south- 
erns proved  at  first  irresistible,  they  ultimately 
coalesced  with  the  tribes  they  had  conquered,  and 
in  the  end  the  principle  of  natural  selection 
replaced  the  vanquished  on  their  proper  plane  of 
eminence.  But  this  distinction,  it  must  be 
observed,  is  one  of  outward  form  rather  than  of 
moral  attributes.  Neither  history  nor  observa- 
tion furnishes  any  reason  for  asserting  that  the 
so-called  "  aristociatic,"  or  Mongoloid,  cast  of 
features  accompanies  a  fuller  endowment  of  either 
physical  or  mental  qualities  than  the  vulgar,  or 
Malayan,  cast.  Numerically  the  patrician  type 
constitutes  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  nation, 
and  seems  to  have  been  lacking  in  a  majority 
of  the  country's  past  leaders,  as  it  is  certainly 
lacking  in  a  majority  of  her  present  publicists, 
and  even  in  the  very  crime  de  la  creme  of  society. 
The  male  of  the  upper  classes  is  not  generally  an 
attractive  product  of  nature.  He  has  neither 
commanding  stature,  refinement  of  features,  nor 
weight  of  muscle.  On  the  other  hand,  among 
the  labouring  populations,  and  especially  among 
the  seaside  folk,  numbers  of  men  are  found  who, 
though  below  the  average  Anglo-Saxon  or  Teuton 
in  bulk,  are  cast  in  a  perfectly  symmetrical  mould 
and  suggest  great  possibilities  of  muscular  effort 
and  endurance.  In  short,  though  the  aristocratic 
type  has  survived,  and  though  its  superior  beauty 
is  universally  recognised,  it  has  not  impressed 

39 


JAPAN 

itself  completely  on  the  nation,  and  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  conceiving  that  its  representatives 
went  down  before  the  first  rush  of  the  southern 
invaders,  but  subsequently,  by  tenacity  of  resist- 
ance and  by  fortitude  under  suffering,  recovered 
from  a  shock  which  would  have  crushed  a  lower 
grade  of  humanity. 

Histories  that  describe  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  a  people  have  been  rare  in  all  ages.  The 
compilers  of  Japan's  first  annals,  in  the  eighth 
century,  paid  little  attention  to  this  part  of  their 
task.  Were  it  necessary  to  rely  on  their  narra- 
tive solely  for  a  knowledge  of  the  primaeval 
Japanese,  the  student  would  be  meagrely  in- 
formed. But  archaeology  comes  to  his  assistance. 
It  raises  these  men  of  old  from  their  graves,  and 
reveals  many  particulars  of  their  civilisation 
which  could  never  have  been  divined  from  the 
written  records  alone. 

The  ancient  Japanese  —  not  the  Koro-pok-guru 
or  the  Ainu,  but  the  ancestors  of  the  Japanese 
proper  —  buried  their  dead,  first  in  barrows  and 
afterwards  in  dolmens.  The  barrow  was  merely 
a  mound  of  earth  heaped  over  the  remains,  after 
the  manner  of  the  Chinese.  The  dolmen  was  a 
stone  chamber.  It  had  walls  constructed  with 
blocks  of  stone,  generally  unhewn  and  rudely 
laid  but  sometimes  hewn  and  carefully  fitted ;  its 
roof  consisted  of  huge  and  ponderous  slabs ;  it 
varied  in  form,  sometimes  taking  the  shape  of  a 
long  gallery  only ;  sometimes  of  a  gallery  and  a 

40 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

chamber,  and  sometimes  of  a  gallery  and  two 
chambers ;  over  it  was  built  a  mound  of  earth 
which  occasionally  assumed  enormous  dimensions, 
covering  a  space  of  seventy  or  eighty  acres,  rising 
to  a  height  of  as  many  feet,  and  requiring  the 
labour  of  thousands  of  workmen.  The  builders 
of  the  barrows  were  in  the  bronze  age  of  civilisa- 
tion ;  the  constructors  of  the  dolmens,  in  the  iron 
age.  In  the  barrows  are  found  weapons  and 
implements  of  bronze  and  vessels  of  hand-made 
pottery ;  in  the  dolmens,  weapons  and  imple- 
ments of  iron  and  vessels  of  wheel-turned  pottery. 
There  is  an  absolute  line  of  division.  No  iron 
weapon  nor  any  machine-made  pottery  occurs  in 
a  barrow ;  no  bronze  weapon  nor  any  hand- 
made pottery  in  a  dolmen.  Are  the  barrow- 
builders  and  the  dolmen-constructors  to  be 
regarded  as  distinct  races,  or  as  men  of  the  same 
race  at  different  stages  of  its  civilisation  ?  Barrow 
and  dolmen  bear  common  testimony  to  the  fact 
that  before  the  ancestors  of  the  Japanese  nation 
crossed  the  sea  to  their  inland  home,  they  had 
already  emerged  from  the  stone  age,  for  neither 
in  barrow  nor  in  dolmen  have  stone-weapons  or 
implements  been  found,  though  these  abound  in 
the  shell-heaps  and  kitchen-middens  that  con- 
stitute the  relics  of  the  Koro-pok-guru  and  the 
Ainu.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  barrow  and 
dolmen  introduce  their  explorer  to  peoples 
who  stood  on  different  planes  of  industrial 
development. 


JAPAN 

The  progress  of  civilisation  is  always  gradual. 
A  nation  does  not  pass,  in  one  stride,  from  burial 
in  rude  tumuli  to  sepulture  in  highly  specialised 
forms  of  stone  vaults,  nor  yet  from  a  bronze  age 
to  an  iron.  It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  evolu- 
tion of  dolmen  from  barrow  did  not  take  place 
within  Japan.  The  dolmen-constructor  must 
have  completely  emerged  from  the  bronze  age 
and  abandoned  the  fashion  of  barrow-burial  before 
he  reached  Japan.  Otherwise  search  would  cer- 
tainly disclose  some  transitional  form  between  the 
barrow  and  the  dolmen,  and  some  iron  imple- 
ments would  occur  in  the  barrows,  or  bronze 
weapons  in  the  dolmens.  If,  then,  the  barrow- 
builder  and  the  dolmen-constructor  were  racially 
identical,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  latter 
succeeded  the  former  by  a  long  interval  in  the 
order  of  immigration,  and  brought  with  him  a 
greatly  improved  type  of  civilisation  evolved  in 
the  country  of  his  origin. 

The  reader  will  be  naturally  disposed  to  antici- 
pate that  the  geographical  distribution  of  the 
dolmens  and  the  barrows  furnishes  some  aid  in 
solving  this  problem.  But  though  the  excep- 
tional number  found  on  the  coasts  opposite  to 
Korea  tends  to  support  the  theory  that  the  stream 
of  Mongoloid  immigration  came  chiefly  from  the 
Korean  peninsula  via  the  island  of  Tsushima, 
there  is  not  any  local  differentiation  of  one  kind 
of  sepulture  from  the  other,  and,  for  the  rest,  the 
grouping  of  the  dolmens  supplies  no  information 

42 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

except  that  their  builders  occupied  the  tract  of 
country  from  the  shores  opposite  Korea  on  the 
west  to  Musashi  and  the  south  of  Shimotsuke  on 
the  east,  and  did  not  penetrate  to  the  extreme 
northeast,  or  to  the  regions  of  mountain  and 
forest  in  the  interior. 

Here  another  point  suggests  itself.  If  the 
fashion  of  the  Japanese  dolmen  was  introduced 
from  abroad,  evidences  of  its  prototype  should 
survive  on  the  adjacent  continent  of  Asia.  If  the 
numerous  dolmens  found  on  the  coasts  of  Kiushiu 
and  Izumo  facing  Korea  are  to  be  taken  as  indi- 
cations that  their  constructors  emigrated  origi- 
nally from  the  Korean  peninsula,  then  Korea  also 
should  contain  similar  dolmens,  and  if  an  ethno- 
logical connection  existed  between  Japan  and 
China  in  prehistoric  days,  China,  too,  should 
have  dolmens.  But  no  dolmens  have  hitherto 
been  found  in  China,  and  the  dolmens  of  Korea 
differ  radically  from  those  of  Japan,  being  "  merely 
cists  with  megalithic  cap-stones  "  (Gowland).  It 
has  been  shown,  further,  that  dolmens  similar 
to  those  of  Japan  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  part 
of  Continental  Asia  eastward  of  the  shores  of  the 
Caspian  Sea,  and  that  Western  Europe  alone  offers 
exactly  analogous  types.  In  short,  from  an  eth- 
nological point  of  view,  the  dolmens  of  Japan  are 
as  perplexing  as  the  dolmens  of  Europe,  and  the 
prospect  of  solving  the  riddle  seems  to  be  equally 
remote  in  both  cases.  All  that  can  be  affirmed 
is  that  the  dolmens  offer  strong  corroborative 

43 


JAPAN 

testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  Japanese  historical 
narrative  which  represents  Jimmu  as  the  leader 
of  the  last  and  most  highly  civilised  among  the 
bands  of  colonists  constituting  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  Japanese  race.  Thus  the  "  divine 
warrior,"  after  having  been  temporarily  erased 
from  the  tablets  of  history  by  the  modern  sceptic 
of  the  West,  is  projected  upon  them  once  more 
from  the  newly  opened  graves  of  the  primaeval 
Japanese.  It  is  true  that  there  is  an  arithmetical 
difficulty :  it  has  been  supposed  that  the  dolmens 
do  not  date  from  a  period  more  remote  than  the 
third  century  before  Christ,  whereas  Jimmu's 
invasion  is  assigned  to  the  seventh.  But  no  great 
effort  of  imagination  is  required  to  effect  a  com- 
promise between  the  uncertain  chronology  of  the 
Japanese  annals  and  the  tentative  estimates  of 
modern  archaeologists. 

Some  of  the  burial  customs  revealed  by  these 
ancient  tombs  resemble  the  habits  of  the  Scythians 
as  described  by  Herodotus.  The  Japanese  did 
not,  it  is  true,  lay  the  corpse  of  a  chieftain  be- 
tween sheets  of  gold,  nor  did  they  inter  his 
favourite  wife  with  similar  pomp  in  an  adjoining 
chamber ;  but  they  did  deposit  with  him  his 
weapons,  his  ornaments,  and  the  trappings  of  his 
war-horse,  and  in  remote  times  they  followed  the 
barbarous  rule  of  burying  alive,  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  his  sepulchre,  his  personal  attendants, 
male  and  female,  and  probably  also  his  steed.  To 
the  abrogation  of  that  cruel  rule  is  due  much 

44 


PRIMAEVAL     JAPANESE 

information  about  the  garments  worn  in  early 
epochs,  for  in  the  century  immediately  preceding 
the  Christian  era  a  kind-hearted  emperor  decided 
that  clay  figures  should  be  substituted  for  human 
victims,  and  these  figures,  being  modelled,  how- 
ever roughly,  in  the  guise  of  the  men  and  women 
of  the  time,  tell  what  kind  of  costumes  were 
worn  and  what  was  the  manner  of  wearing  them. 
Collecting  all  the  available  evidence,  the  story 
shapes  itself  into  this  :  — 

Prior  to  the  third,  or  perhaps  the  fourth,  cen- 
tury before  the  Christian  era,  when  the  dead  were 
interred  in  barrows,  not  dolmens,  the  Japanese, 
though  they  stood  on  a  plane  considerably  above 
the  general  level  of  Asiatic  civilisation,  did  not  yet 
understand  the  forging  of  iron  or  the  use  of  the 
potter's  wheel.  They  were  still  in  the  bronze  age, 
and  their  weapons — swords,  halberds,  and  arrow- 
heads—  were  made  of  that  metal.  Concerning 
the  fashion  of  their  garments  not  much  is  known, 
but  they  used,  for  purpose  of  personal  adornment, 
quaintly  shaped  objects  of  jasper,  rock-crystal,  ste- 
atite, and  other  stones.  Then,  owing  probably  to 
the  advent  of  a  second  wave  of  immigration  from 
the  continent,  the  civilisation  of  the  nation  was 
suddenly  raised,  and  the  country  passed  at  once 
from  the  bronze  to  the  iron  age,  with  a  corre- 
sponding development  of  industrial  capacity  in 
other  directions,  and  with  a  novel  method  of 
sepulture  having  no  exact  prototype  except  in 
Western  Europe.  The  new-comers  seem  to  have 

45 


JAPAN 

been,  not  a  race  distinct  from  their  predecessors, 
but  a  second  outgrowth  of  colonists  from  the  same 
parent  stem.  Where  that  stem  had  its  roots  there 
is  no  clear  indication,  but  it  is  evident  that,  during 
the  interval  between  the  first  and  the  second  mi- 
grations, the  mother  country  had  far  excelled  its 
colony  in  material  civilisation,  so  that,  with  the 
advent  of  the  second  band  of  wanderers,  the  con- 
dition of  the  Japanese  underwent  marked  change. 
They  laid  aside  their  bronze  weapons  and  began  to 
use  iron  swords  and  spears,  and  iron-tipped  arrows. 
A  warrior  carried  one  sword  and,  perhaps,  a  dagger. 
The  sword  had  a  blade  which  varied  from  two 
and  a  half  feet  to  over  three  feet  in  length. 
These  were  not  the  curved  weapons  with  curi- 
ously modelled  faces  and  wonderful  trenchancy 
which  became  so  celebrated  in  later  times. 
Straight,  one-edged  swords,  formidable  enough, 
but  considerably  inferior  to  the  admirable  katana 
of  mediaeval  and  modern  eras,  they  were  sheathed 
in  wooden  scabbards,  having  bands  and  hoops  of 
copper,  silver,  or  iron,  by  means  of  which  the 
weapon  was  suspended  from  the  girdle.  The 
guards  were  of  iron,  copper,  or  bronze,  often 
coated  with  gold,  and  always  having  holes  cut 
in  them  to  render  them  lighter.  Wood  was  the 
material  used  for  hilt  as  well  as  for  scabbard,  but 
generally  in  the  former  case  and  sometimes  in  the 
latter  a  thin  sheet  of  copper  with  gold  plating  en- 
veloped the  wood.  Double  barbs  characterised 
the  arrow-head,  and  as  these  projected  about  four 

46 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

inches  beyond  the  shaft,  a  bow  of  great  strength 
must  have  been  used,  though  of  only  medium 
length.  Armour  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
generally  worn,  or  to  have  served  for  covering 
any  part  of  the  body  except  the  head  and  the 
breast.  It  was  of  iron,  and  it  took  the  shape  of 
thin  bands  of  metal,  riveted  together  for  casque 
and  cuirass.  Neither  brassart,  visor,  nor  greaves 
have  been  found  in  any  dolmen,  and  though  sol- 
erets  of  copper  are  among  the  objects  exhumed, 
they  appear  to  have  been  rather  ornamental  than 
defensive.  As  to  shields,  nothing  is  known.  No 
trace  of  them  has  been  found,  and  it  seems  a  rea- 
sonable inference  that  they  were  not  used.  Horses 
evidently  played  an  important  part  in  the  lives  of 
the  second  batch  of  immigrants,  for  horse-furni- 
ture constantly  appears  among  the  objects  found  in 
dolmens.  The  bit  is  almost  identical  with  the 
common  "  snaffle  "  of  the  Occident.  Made  of 
iron,  it  has  side-rings  or  cheek-pieces  of  the  same 
metal,  elaborately  shaped  and  often  sheeted  with 
gilded  copper.  The  saddle  was  of  wood,  peaked 
before  and  behind  and  braced  with  metal  bands, 
and  numerous  ornaments  of  repousse  iron  covered 
with  sheets  of  gilt  or  silvered  copper  were  attached 
to  the  trappings.  Among  these  ornaments  a  pe- 
culiar form  of  bell  is  present :  an  oblate  hollow- 
sphere,  having  a  long  slit  in  its  shell  and  containing 
a  loose  metal  pellet.  Stirrups  are  seldom  found 
in  the  dolmens,  and  the  rare  specimens  hitherto 
exhumed  bear  no  resemblance  to  the  large,  heavy, 

47 


JAPAN 

shoe-shaped  affairs  of  later  ages,  but  are  rather  of 
the  Occidental  type. 

The  costume  of  these  ancient  Japanese  had  lit- 
tle in  common  with  that  of  their  modern  descend- 
ants. They  wore  an  upper  garment  of  woven 
stuff,  fashioned  after  the  manner  of  a  loosely 
fitting  tunic,  and  confined  at  the  waist  by  a 
girdle,  and  they  had  loose  trousers  reaching 
nearly  to  the  feet.  For  ornaments  they  used 
necklaces  of  beads  or  of  rings,  —  silver,  stone, 
or  glass ;  finger-rings,  sometimes  of  silver  or 
gold,  sometimes  of  copper,  bronze,  or  iron  plated 
with  one  of  the  precious  metals  ;  ring-shaped  but- 
tons ;  metal  armlets  ;  bands  or  plates  of  gilt  copper 
which  were  attached  to  the  tunic ;  ear-rings  of 
gold,  and  tiaras.  Not  one  item  in  this  catalogue, 
the  tiara  excepted,  appears  among  the  garments 
or  personal  ornaments  of  the  Japanese  since  their 
history  and  habits  began  to  be  known  to  the  outer 
world.  No  nation  has  undergone  a  more  radical 
change  of  taste  in  the  matter  of  habiliments  and 
adornments.  The  ear-ring,  the  necklace,  the  fin- 
ger-ring, the  bracelet,  and  the  band  or  plate  of 
metal  attached  to  the  tunic,  —  all  these  passed 
completely  out  of  vogue  so  long  ago  that,  with- 
out the  evidence  of  the  contents  of  the  dolmen, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  the  existence 
of  such  things  in  Japan.  One  of  the  most  note- 
worthy features  of  the  people's  habits  in  mediaeval 
or  modern  times  is  that,  with  the  solitary  excep- 
tion of  pins  and  fillets  for  the  hair,  they  eschew 

48 


HH 

10 


IO 

a 


PRIMEVAL     JAPANESE 

every  class  of  personal  ornament.  Yet  the  dol- 
mens indicate  that  personal  adornments  were 
abundantly,  if  not  profusely,  employed  by  the 
ancestors  of  these  same  Japanese  in  prehistoric 
days.  Indeed,  the  only  features  common  to  the 
fashions  of  the  Japanese  as  they  are  now  known 
and  the  Japanese  as  their  sepulchres  reveal  them, 
are  the  rich  decoration  of  the  sword-hilt  and  scab- 
bard and  of  the  war-horse's  trappings. 

As  to  the  food  of  these  early  people,  it  seems 
to  have  consisted  of  fish,  flesh,  and  cereals.  They 
used  wine  of  some  kind,  though  of  its  nature 
there  is  no  knowledge,  and  their  household 
utensils  were  of  pottery,  graceful  in  outline  but 
unglazed  and  archaically  decorated.  Whether  or 
not  they  possessed  cattle  there  is  no  evidence,  nor 
yet  is  it  known  what  means  they  employed  to 
produce  fire,  though  the  fire-drill  appears  to  be 
the  most  probable. 

That  they  believed  in  a  future  state  is  evident, 
since  they  buried  with  the  dead  whatever  imple- 
ments and  weapons  might  be  necessary  in  the 
life  beyond  the  grave ;  that  ancestral  worship 
constituted  an  important  part  of  their  religious 
cult  is  proved  by  the  offerings  periodically  made 
at  the  tombs  of  the  deceased ;  and  that  idolatry 
was  not  practised  or  superstition  largely  prevalent 
may  be  deduced  from  the  complete  absence  of 
charms  or  amulets  among  the  remains  found  in 
their  sepulchres. 


49 


Chapter  III 

JAPAN  ON  THE   FERGE   OF  HISTORT 

IN  one  respect  Japan's  story  differs  from  that 
of  nearly  all  other  countries :  the  current 
of  her  national  life  was  never  diverted  from 
its  normal  channel  by  successful  foreign  in- 
vasions or  by  any  overwhelming  inflow  of  alien 
races.  It  is  true  that  her  codes  of  ethics  and 
social  conventions  were  largely  modified,  from 
time  to  time,  by  foreign  influences.  But  it  is 
also  true  that  she  impressed  the  stamp  of  her 
own  originality  on  everything  coming  to  her 
from  abroad,  and  that,  leading  what  may  be 
called  an  uninterruptedly  domestic  existence 
during  twenty-five  centuries,  she  developed  char- 
acteristics so  salient  that  in  studying  her  annals 
there  is  forced  upon  our  attention  a  continuity 
of  easily  synthesised  traits. 

No  traces  of  autocratic  sovereignty  are  to  be 
found  in  the  history  of  the  early  colonists.  The 
general  who  led  the  invaders  received  recognition 
as  their  chief,  but  the  offices  of  the  newly 
organised  States  were  divided  among  his  principal 
followers,  not  as  arbitrarily  conferred  gifts,  but  as 
spoils  falling  to  them  by  right.  The  occupants 

5° 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

of  these  posts  were  not  removable  at  the  caprice 
of  the  Sovereign,  and  they  enjoyed  the  privi- 
lege of  transmitting  their  offices  to  their  sons ;  a 
system  of  hereditary  officialdom  which  remained 
in  operation  through  long  ages. 

Thus  the  national  polity  in  the  earliest  times 
assumed  a  patriarchal  form.  Public  affairs  were 
administered  by  a  group  of  official  families,  and 
at  the  head  of  all  stood  a  lineal  descendant  of  the 
divine  ancestors,  the  degree  of  his  sway  varying 
from  time  to  time  according  to  the  docility  of 
his  coadjutors. 

All  these  great  families  were  supposed  to  be 
of  divine  lineage ;  they  traced  their  origin  to  a 
Mi  koto  (an  augustness)  just  as  the  Sovereign  him- 
self did.  Some,  presumably  the  most  deserving, 
obtained  offices  near  the  throne  when  the  spoils 
of  conquest  were  distributed ;  others  were 
appointed  to  provincial  posts,  and  as  these  latter 
generally  found  their  administrative  regions 
occupied  by  barbarians  whom  they  had  to  subdue 
at  first  and  to  hold  in  check  afterwards,  they 
gradually  organised  principalities  virtually  inde- 
pendent of  the  central  government.  That, 
however,  is  a  historical  development  subsequent 
to  the  era  now  under  consideration. 

It  does  not  appear  that  there  was  anything  like 
a  fully  organised  administration  until  some  thir- 
teen hundred  years  after  the  date  traditionally 
assigned  for  the  conquest  of  Yamato  by  the 
Emperor  Jimmu.  The  functions  of  government 

$1 


JAPAN 

were  divided,  not  in  accordance  with  any  prin- 
ciple of  convenient  discharge,  but  simply  with 
reference  to  the  claims  of  the  persons  undertaking 
them.  To  two  of  the  imperial  princes  were 
entrusted  sacerdotal  and  executive  duties ;  to  two 
others,  military  duties,  which  consisted  chiefly  of 
guarding  the  new  palace  and  capital ;  and  to  two 
others,  the  duties  of  worship  and  administration 
in  the  provinces.  The  performance  of  religious 
rites  formed  an  essential  part  of  state-craft  in 
those  times.  In  fact,  the  term  (matsur'i}  for 
"  worship  "  was  identical  with  that  for  "  govern- 
ment," and  the  identity  continued  until  a  very 
recent  era,  so  that,  in  the  language  of  every-day 
life,  no  distinction  was  made  between  the  sacred 
business  of  prayer  and  the  secular  business  of 
ruling.  That  fact  reveals  very  clearly  the  foun- 
dation upon  which  the  national  polity  stood. 
The  Sovereign  was  the  nation's  high-priest. 
Like  the  Jewish  patriarchs,  he  interceded  for  his 
people  direct  with  Heaven,  and  ruled  them  by 
the  authority  he  derived  from  the  deities.  His 
administrative  assistants  followed  the  same  prin- 
ciple. They  -invoked  the  aid  of  Heaven  for  the 
discharge  of  all  their  duties,  and  its  blessing  upon 
all  the  affairs  of  the  people  under  their  control. 

It  cannot  be  affirmed  that  the  high  officers  of 
State  had  any  officially  recognised  designations  in 
remote  times,  and  the  absence  of  such  designa- 
tions goes  far  to  confirm  the  theory  that  the 
functions  of  the  patriarchs  were  of  a  genera] 

5* 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

character,  and  that  no  attempt  to  divide  them 
systematically  was  made.  They  did,  however, 
receive  appellations  from  the  people.  Just  as 
household  servants  speak  of  "  the  master "  and 
a  ship's  crew  of  "  the  captain,"  so  the  first  gov- 
ernor of  a  province  came  to  be  called  "  the  im- 
perial person  of  the  country  "  (Kunino  mi-yatsuko}  • 
the  first  agricultural  superintendent  was  known 
as  "  the  lord  of  the  fields  "  (agatanushi}  ;  the  first 
high  chamberlain  as  "  the  great  man  of  the 
palace"  (miya  no  obito}.  In  like  manner,  such 
titles  as  "  great  body "  (omt),  "  master  of  the 
multitude  "  (muraji},  "  honorable  intermediary  " 
(nakatomt)  and  so  on,  were  employed  as  terms  of 
respect,  and  ultimately  passed  into  use  as  official 
titles. 

The  share  assigned  to  a  patriarch  in  the  central 
or  provincial  administration  became  his  inalien- 
able property.  He  transmitted  it  to  his  son  and 
to  his  son's  son.  Thus  not  only  were  offices 
hereditary  but  their  occupants  multiplied,  so  that 
all  the  posts  and  perquisites  of  a  department  fell 
finally  into  the  possession  of  a  clan.  The  head 
of  the  clan  then  came  to  be  distinguished  by  the 
prefix  O  (great  or  senior) ;  as  O-mi  (the  senior 
honourable  person),  O-muraji  (the  great  master  of 
the  multitude),  and  so  on.  There  were  no  family 
names  in  the  Occidental  sense  of  the  term.  Men 
were  distinguished  instead  by  the  titles  of  the 
administrative  posts  belonging  to  their  houses. 
The  name  of  the  post  preceded  that  of  the  per- 

53 


JAPAN 

son,  as  was  natural,  so  that  a  man  was  spoken  of 
as  "  Hierarch  Kasumi "  (Nakatomi  no  Kasumi}, 
or  "  Guardsman  Moriya "  (Monobe  Moriya},  or 
"  Purveyor  Kujira"  (Kashiwade  no  Kujira}.1 

Eminent  as  was  the  position  assigned  to  religion 
in  the  polity  of  the  ancient  Japanese,  no  trace  of 
a  doctrinal  creed,  as  creeds  are  understood  in  the 
Occident,  is  found  in  their  lives.  Their  burial 
customs  show  that  they  believed  in  an  existence 
beyond  the  grave,  but  they  seem  to  have  troubled 
themselves  little  about  the  nature  of  that  exist- 
ence, or  about  transcendental  speculations  of  any 
kind.  The  chief  denizen  of  celestial  space,  ac- 
cording to  their  creed,  was  a  tutelary  deity,  the 
Goddess  of  Light,  and  since  her  worship,  or  the 
worship  of  some  lesser  spirit,  had  to  preface 
every  administrative  act  of  importance,  religious 
rites  were  placed,  as  has  been  already  stated,  at 
the  head  of  all  official  functions.  Yet  special 
buildings  for  ceremonial  purposes  did  not  origi- 
nally exist.  The  Emperor,  as  the  nation's  high- 
priest,  worshipped  in  the  palace,  where  were 
kept  the  insignia  of  sovereignty,  —  the  sword,  the 
mirror,  and  the  jewel  of  divine  origin.  Not  until 
the  first  century  before  Christ  were  shrines 
erected  apart  from  the  palace,  and  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  innovation  was  a  pestilence  which 
the  soothsayers  interpreted  as  a  heavenly  protest 
against  the  method  of  worship  then  pursued. 
The  creed  was  not  exclusive.  Its  pantheon, 

i  See  Appendix,  note  4. 

54 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

which  in  the  beginning  included  only  the  deities 
of  high  heaven,  was  soon  enlarged  by  the  admis- 
sion of  other  powers  controlling  the  forces  of 
nature,  as  well  as  by  the  spirits  of  deceased  heroes, 
and  ultimately  received  even  the  supernatural 
beings  supposed  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of 
the  aboriginal  tribes.  In  other  words,  the  civil- 
ised colonists  consented  to  worship  the  ancestors 
of  the  semi-savage  aborigines  against  whom  they 
perpetually  waged  war.  This  might  be  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  upon  the  religion  which  the 
Japanese  brought  with  them  to  Japan  the  religion 
of  the  autochthons  whom  they  found  there  was 
engrafted.  But  nothing  is  known  of  the  autoch- 
thonous creed.  The  true  explanation  seems  to 
be  that  the  Japanese,  analysing  their  difficulty  in 
subduing  the  aborigines,  attributed  it  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  latter's  deceased  rulers,  and  concluded 
that  the  wisest  plan  would  be  to  propitiate  these 
hostile  powers.  Hence  it  is  plain  that  they  be- 
lieved in  malevolent  spirits  as  well  as  in  benevo- 
lent ;  or  perhaps  the  more  accurate  statement 
would  be  that,  according  to  their  creed,  immortal 
beings  continued  to  be  animated  by  the  sentiments 
which  had  swayed  them  as  mortals,  and  possessed 
power  to  give  practical  effect  to  their  sentiments. 
They  did  not  associate  any  idea  of  rewards  and 
punishments  with  a  future  state.  Their  theory 
pointed  to  duality  of  the  soul.  They  regarded  it 
as  consisting  of  two  distinct  elements :  one  the 
source  of  courage,  strength,  and  aggressiveness ; 


JAPAN 

the  other  the  mainspring  of  benevolence,  refine- 
ment, and  magnanimity.  In  the  good  man  these 
elements  were  blended  harmoniously  during  life, 
and  they  survived  in  like  proportions  after  the 
death  of  his  body.  But  whatever  had  been  the 
quality  of  the  mortal  tenement,  the  immortal 
tenant  passed  from  the  edge  of  the  grave  into  the 
"sombre  realm"  (Tomotsu-kuni},  which  was  sep- 
arated from  this  world  by  a  "  broad  slope " 
(Tomotsu-hirazaka},  never  recrossed  by  a  spirit 
that  had  eaten  anything  cooked  in  the  land  of 
darkness.  The  offerings  made  at  the  tombs  of 
the  deceased  had  the  purpose  of  providing  against 
that  disaster  of  eternal  banishment,  and,  in  an- 
other sense,  were  a  mark  of  filial  piety,  the 
natural  outcome  of  faith  in  the  terrestrial  inter- 
ference of  the  departed. 

In  addition  to  the  celestial  and  the  terrestrial 
deities,  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdom 
supplied  objects  of  worship.  Monster  snakes, 
supposed  to  destroy  the  crops,  were  propitiated 
by  sacrifice,  and  giant  trees,  venerated  as  the 
abode  of  supernal  beings,  were  fenced  off  with 
ropes  carrying  sacred  pendants.1  The  folk-lore 
of  the  nation  includes  several  stories  of  losses  and 
sufferings  caused  by  cutting  down  sacred  trees, 
and  the  rituals  show  that  herbs,  rocks,  and  trees 
were  supposed  to  have  the  power  of  speech  prior 
to  the  descent  of  the  deities,  when  dumbness  fell 
upon  all  these  objects. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  5. 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

Out  of  such  beliefs  a  rudimentary  form  of  the 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis  easily  emerges. 
Yamatake,  the  great  hero  of  prehistoric  Japan, 
was  transformed  into  a  white  bird,  and  Tamichi, 
the  generalissimo  vanquished  by  the  Ezo,  became 
a  monster  snake  which  devoured  the  desecrators 
of  his  tomb.  Some  ethnologists  allege  that  the 
custom  of  human  sacrifices  existed  in  early  days ; 
but  the  theory  is  founded  on  a  solitary  legend  of 
the  Perseus-and-Andromeda  type,  which  does 
not  seem  to  justify  any  such  inference.  Every- 
thing, indeed,  goes  to  show  that  while  a  sacri- 
ficial element  undoubtedly  entered  largely  into 
the  rites  of  worship,  it  never  involved  the  taking 
of  human  life,  the  objects  offered  to  the  gods 
being  confined  to  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  birds, 
animals,  and  the  products  of  labour.  Auguries 
were  obtained  by  burning  the  hoof  of  an  ox 
or  the  shoulder-blade  of  a  stag,  and  deciphering 
the  lines  in  the  calcined  bone.  But  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  no  such  method  of  sooth- 
saying had  a  place  in  the  primaeval  superstitions 
of  the  Japanese ;  it  probably  came  to  them  from 
Korea.  A  device  more  consistent  with  their 
own  beliefs  was  to  invoke  a  sign  from  heaven 
by  music,  when  a  deity  descended  and  inspired 
the  musician. 

The  most  famous  legend  in  Japan  is  that 
which  is  supposed  to  describe  the  origin  of 
religious  services.  The  Goddess  of  the  Sun 
(Amaterasu  Okami),  having  retired  into  a  cave  so 

57 


JAPAN 

that  the  universe  was  plunged  in  darkness,  the 
eight  hundred  myriads  of  lesser  deities  assembled 
to  propitiate  her.  Thereafter  the  act  of  worship 
took  this  shape :  five  hundred  saplings  of  sakakl 
(Clyera  japonica}  with  their  roots  were  arranged 
round  a  mirror  (made  of  copper)  which  typified 
the  goddess  of  light.  In  the  upper  branches  of 
the  trees  were  hung  balls  representing  the  sacred 
jewel,  and  in  the  lower  branches,  blue  and  white 
pendants.  A  prayer  was  then  recited  by  the 
chief  hierarch,  in  lieu  of  the  Emperor,  and  the 
service  concluded  with  a  dance  and  the  lighting 
of  fires,  in  imitation  of  the  devices  employed  by 
the  deities  to  lure  the  sun  goddess  from  her 
retirement.  The  prayers  offered  on  these  occa- 
sions were  probably  rendered  into  exact  formulae 
at  an  early  date,  but  they  were  not  reduced  to 
writing  until  the  tenth  century.  Twenty-seven 
of  them  have  been  preserved,  and  seventy-five  are 
said  to  have  been  in  use.  Their  language  is  often 
majestic,  poetical,  and  sonorous,1  but  not  one  of 
them  contains  a  word  suggesting  that  the 
primaeval  Japanese  troubled  themselves  much 
about  a  future  state  after  death  or  about  posthu- 
mous punishment  for  sins  committed  during  life. 
Their  idea  of  crime  was  that  it  polluted  the 
person  committing  it,  but  that  its  commission 
was  inevitable.  Hence  purification  services  were 
performed  twice  in  every  year,  the  gods  of  the 
swift  streams,  the  tumbling  cataracts,  and  the 

1  See  Appendix,  note  6. 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

raging  tides  being  invoked  to  wash  away  and 
dissipate  all  offences.  First  among  crimes  was 
the  removal  of  a  neighbour's  landmark  —  de- 
scribed as  breaking  down  divisions  between  rice- 
fields  ;  then  followed  the  damming  of  streams 
and  the  destruction  of  water-pipes,  whence  it 
may  be  inferred  that  the  problem  of  irrigation 
for  purposes  of  rice-culture  proved  as  perplexing 
to  these  ancient  folk  as  it  does  to  their  modern 
descendants.  On  the  same  plane  of  heinousness 
stood  the  cruelty  of  flaying  the  living  or  the 
dead,  and  among  lesser  crimes  were  enumerated 
cutting  and  wounding,  incest  and  the  practice  of 
witchcraft.  Every  religious  service  was  accom- 
panied by  offerings  betokening  gratitude  for  past 
favours  or  beseeching  future  blessings,  and  the 
things  prayed  for  were  good  harvests,  an  abun- 
dance of  food,  security  of  dwelling-houses  against 
natural  calamities,  and  against  the  intrusion  of 
reptiles  or  polluting  birds,  tranquil  and  efficient 
government,  and  protection  from  tempests,  con- 
flagrations, pestilence,  inundations,  and  vengeful 
deities  —  in  a  word,  prosperity  and  peace.  Inci- 
dentally, these  rituals  further  show  that  the 
Japanese  believed  in  a  solid  firmament  walling 
the  universe,  though  certain  passages  suggest  that 
they  thought  this  distant  envelope  light  enough 
to  be  supported  by  the  winds,  which  not  only 
filled  space,  but  were  also  capable  of  serving  as  a 
ladder  for  the  feet  of  the  deities  when  they 
descended  to  the  earth.  The  fermented  liquor 

59 


JAPAN 

called  sake,  that  is  to  say,  rice-beer,  must  have 
been  highly  appreciated  in  early  times,  for  no 
ritualistic  enumeration  of  offerings  made  to  the 
gods  is  without  a  reference  to  "  piled  up  sake- 
pots"  or  "bellying  beer-jars  ranged  in  rows." 

It  has  been  shown  above  that  the  story  of  the 
first  mortal  emperor's  conquest  of  Yamato  indi- 
cates the  use  of  clumsy  boats  and  a  marked 
deficiency  of  navigating  enterprise.  But  the 
rituals  of  Shinto  —  as  Japan's  ancient  creed  is 
called  —  do  not  confirm  that  idea.  They  speak 
of  ships  that  "  continually  crowd  on  the  wide 
sea-plane,"  and  of  "  a  huge  vessel  moored  in  a 
great  harbour,  which,  casting  off  her  stern  moor- 
ings, casting  off  her  bow  moorings,  drives  forth 
into  the  vast  ocean." 

It  is  curious  that  among  the  evils  from  which 
deliverance  was  besought,  earthquakes  are  no- 
where mentioned,  and  that  robbery  is  not  included 
in  the  list  of  polluting  crimes.  Some  have 
inferred  that  this  commonest  of  all  sins  in  all 
nations  was  unknown  among  the  ancient  Japanese. 
But  that  is  a  doubtful  conclusion.  It  might  be 
inferred  with  equal  justice  that  incest  was  re- 
garded with  abhorrence,  since  the  rituals  class 
it  among  sins  contaminating  the  perpetrator. 
Yet  it  is  certain  that  men  had  relations  with  the 
mothers  of  their  wives  and  even  with  their  own 
mothers  and  daughters,  —  though  facts  will 
presently  be  cited  which  mitigate  the  horror  of 
such  acts,  —  that  unnatural  crimes  of  a  most 

60 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

disgusting  character  were  committed  not  infre- 
quently, and  that  no  veto  is  known  to  have  been 
pronounced  against  them. 

There  was,  in  fact,  no  system  of  philosophy 
nor  any  code  of  ethics.  India  had  Sidathra, 
China  had  Confucius,  but  neither  in  ancient, 
mediaeval,  nor  modern  time  has  Japan  produced 
a  great  teacher  of  morality.  She  has  had  plenty 
of  brilliant  interpreters,  plenty  of  profound  modi- 
fiers, but  no  conspicuous  originator. 

The  right  of  primogeniture  was  not  recognised 
in  the  age  here  spoken  of.  A  father  chose  his 
heir  at  will.  Generally  the  choice  fell  on  his 
youngest  son,  for  reasons  which  become  plain 
when  the  marital  customs  of  the  time  are  con- 
sidered. The  conception  of  marriage  was 
practically  limited  to  cohabitation.  A  husband 
incurred  no  obligations  or  responsibilities  towards 
his  wife.  It  is  related  that  the  first  emperor 
(Jimmu),  chancing  to  meet  a  band  of  seven 
maidens,  made  immediate  proposals  that  one  of 
them  should  become  his  mate.  The  girl  agreed, 
and  the  sovereign  passed  the  night  at  her  house, 
a  visit  which  he  thenceforth  became  entitled  to 
repeat  whenever  he  pleased.  That  was  wedlock. 
To  be  married  involved  no  change  in  a  woman's 
life  except  the  liability  to  receive  visits  from  her 
husband.  As  to  the  man,  there  was  absolutely  no 
duty  of  fidelity  on  his  side.  He  might  form  as 
many  different  unions  as  fancy  prompted.  The 
children  were  brought  up  by  the  mother,  and  it 

61 


JAPAN 

was  possible  for  one  household  to  remain  in 
entire  ignorance  of  another's  existence.  Mutual 
knowledge  generally  signified  feuds  and  fighting, 
for  the  father's  favour  was  naturally  bestowed  on 
the  children  of  his  latest  affection,  and  the  elder 
branches  of  his  offspring  frequently  rebelled 
against  such  partiality.  Another  result  of  the 
system  was  marriages  between  half-brothers  and 
half-sisters,  or  between  uncles  and  nieces.  These 
unions  were  not  condemned  by  the  moral  code 
of  the  time.  Indeed,  the  existence  of  any  rela- 
tionship was  sometimes  unknown  to  the  parties 
themselves,  a  man's  wives  and  families  in  different 
places  not  necessarily  having  any  mutual  acquaint- 
ance. The  only  restriction  recognised  was  that 
children  of  the  same  mother  must  not  intermarry. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  under  these  circumstances 
the  ties  of  consanguinity  did  not  bind  men  very 
closely.  To  be  sons  of  the  same  father  carried 
no  obligation  of  friendship  or  sympathy.  Often 
in  the  annals  of  the  innumerable  civil  wars  that 
disturbed  Japan  the  reader  is  shocked  by  deeds 
of  vengeance,  treachery,  or  ambitious  truculence 
that  violate  all  the  dictates  of  natural  affection. 
The  origin  of  these  displays  of  callousness  or 
cruelty  must  be  sought  in  the  ancient  system 
which  condemned  a  wife  to  perform  the  functions 
of  a  mere  animal,  and  deprived  her  children  of 
any  claim  on  their  father's  love  and  protection. 

"  Houses "  have  been  spoken  of  above,  but  a 
reservation  is  necessary :   the  upper  classes  lived 

62 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

in  houses ;  the  lower  inhabited  caves  or  holes  in 
the  earth,  choosing  hillsides  for  sites  in  order  to 
escape  inundations,  which  were  then  of  calamitous 
dimensions  and  frequency.  These  cave-dwellings 
seem  to  have  measured  from  four  to  six  square 
yards  in  area,  and  to  have  been  closed  by  a  door 
four  or  five  feet  high.  Common  folk  used  them 
all  the  year  round,  and  even  princes  and  nobles 
found  them  comfortable  as  winter  residences, 
transferring  themselves  in  summer  to  huts  built 
near  the  entrance  of  the  caves.1  In  constructing 
houses  of  the  best  type,  the  palaces  of  the  era, 
flat  stones 2  were  sunk  in  the  ground  to  form  a 
foundation,  and  on  these  was  raised  a  stout  up- 
right, the  "heavenly  pillar"  (ame  no  mihashira}. 
At  every  corner  also  a  pillar  of  lesser  dimensions 
was  erected,  and  between  the  tops  of  these  corner 
pillars,  as  well  as  from  each  of  them  to  the 
central  post,  beams  were  stretched,  the  whole 
bound  together  with  wistaria  withes.  Reeds  or 
rushes  served  for  thatching,  and  heavy  logs  laid 
over  the  thatch  prevented  it  from  being  blown 
away.  The  ends  of  the  tie-beams  projected  high 
above  the  roof,  a  feature  permanently  preserved 
in  Shinto  architecture ;  a  hole  in  the  thatch  gave 
exit  to  the  smoke  of  the  cooking-fire  ;  the  frames 
of  doors  and  windows  were  tied  in  their  places 
with  stems  of  creepers,  and  the  walls  consisted 
of  logs  or  bark,  or  of  both  combined.  These 
edifices  generally  stood  near  a  stream  which 

1  See  Appendix,  note  7.  2  See  Appendix,  note  8. 

63 


JAPAN 

carried  off  impurities  ;  mats,  rushes,  or  skins  were 
spread  for  a  bed,  and  furs,  cloth,  or  silk  served  for 
coverlets.  The  floor  was  of  timber,  but  whether 
of  logs  or  of  boards  is  not  known.  A  religious 
service  of  consecration  for  propitiating  the  deities 
of  timber  and  rice  was  held  when  the  first 
emperor  built  his  palace  at  Kashibara  after  he 
had  conquered  Yamato,  and  it  became  customary 
thenceforth  to  repeat  the  service  at  coronations 
and  after  harvest  fetes.  Common  people,  when 
they  built  a  residence,  invited  their  friends  to  a 
"  house-warming,"  but  the  Emperor  invoked  the 
gods  against  the  entry  of  snakes  that  bit  the 
inmates,  or  of  birds  that  polluted  the  food  ;  against 
groaning  timbers,  loosening  ties,  unevenness  of 
thatch,  and  creaking  floors. 

All  this  indicates  a  comparatively  low  type  of 
civilisation.  And  yet,  as  has  been  shown  in  a 
previous  chapter,  objects  found  in  the  tombs  of 
these  early  Japanese  show  that  they  possessed 
much  skill  in  the  casting  and  chiselling  of  metals, 
that  their  arms  and  the  trappings  of  their  horses 
were  highly  ornamented,  and  that  their  costume 
had  many  elements  of  refinement. 

Perhaps  the  most  special  feature  of  their  habits 
was  cleanliness.  It  distinguishes  them  from  all 
other  Oriental  nations.  Whether  this  propensity 
grew  out  of  their  religious  observances  or  was 
merely  reflected  in  them,  there  is  no  means  of 
determining.  Knowledge  is  limited  to  the  facts 
that  they  held  every  form  of  pollution  to  be 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

offensive  to  the  gods;  that  the  chief  Shintd  ser- 
vice, the  "  high  mass "  of  the  cult,  has  for  its 
purpose  the  purification  of  the  believer's  body  as 
well  as  of  his  heart :  that  chastity  and  simplicity 
were  fundamental  features  of  all  the  rites,  con- 
structions, and  paraphernalia  of  the  creed,  and 
that  the  virtue  of  cleanliness  received  practical 
acknowledgment  even  among  the  lowest  classes. 

Songs  and  dances  appear  among  the  most  an- 
cient pastimes  of  the  people.  Love  is  supposed 
to  have  inspired  the  first  ode  composed  in  Japan, 
the  Emperor  Jimmu  having  been  moved  to  song 
on  meeting  with  the  maiden  Isuzu.  The  refer- 
ence here  is  to  mortal  poets.  A  still  earlier 
couplet  is  attributed  to  one  of  the  immortals 
when  she  danced  before  the  cave  into  which  the 
Sun  Goddess  had  retired.  In  the  latter  incident 
also  ethnologists  find  the  supposed  origin  of  danc- 
ing, which  from  time  immemorial  has  been  at 
once  a  religious  observance  and  an  universally 
popular  amusement.  Virgins  danced  before  the 
shrine  of  the  Sun  Goddess  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nation,  and  from  the  highest  noble  to  the 
meanest  churl  everyone  loved  the  music  of  motion. 
The  first  costume-dance  was  prompted  by  pain, 
when  a  deity,  vanquished  in  fight  and  threatened 
with  drowning,  painted  his  face  red  and  lifted 
his  feet  in  an  agony  of  supplication.  This  hayato- 
mai  (the  warrior  dance),  as  it  is  called,  is  still 
included  among  the  classical  mimes  of  the  Impe- 
rial Court.  It  was  performed  to  the  music  of  a 
5  65 


JAPAN 

stringed  instrument  (the  Wa-kin) l  and  of  a  flute, 
perhaps  accompanied  by  a  drum.  Even  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  were  supposed  to  be  moved  by  song 
and  dance.  When  a  man  died,  his  corpse  was 
placed  in  a  building  specially  erected  for  the 
purpose.  There  it  lay  for  ten  days,  while  the 
relatives  and  friends  of  the  deceased  assembled 
and  venerated  his  spirit,  making  music  and  danc- 
ing. This  ceremony  of  farewell  seems  to  have 
been  originally  prompted  by  a  hope  of  recalling 
the  departed,  but  it  soon  lost  that  character  and 
became  a  mere  token  of  respect.  Ancient  Japan 
was  largely  indebted  to  Korea  for  developments 
of  musical  instruments.  On  the  death  of  the 
Emperor  Ingyo  (453  A.  D.),  the  Korean  Court 
sent  eighty  musicians  robed  in  black,  who 
marched  in  procession  from  the  landing-place  to 
the  Yamato  palace,  playing  and  singing  a  dirge 
as  they  went. 

The  oldest  organised  form  of  amusement  seems 
to  have  been  the  Ka-gaki,  or  poetical  picnic. 
Parties  of  men  and  women  met  at  appointed 
places,  either  in  town  or  country,  and  composed 
couplets,  delivering  them  with  accompaniment 
of  music  or  dancing.  This  kind  of  pastime  had 
its  practical  uses :  it  brought  lovers  together  and 
soon  became  a  recognised  preface  to  marriage. 
Among  amusements  confined  to  men,  cock-fight- 
ing and  hunting  were  most  affected.  Large 
tracts  of  the  country  being  still  unreclaimed,  deer 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  9. 

66 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

and  wild-boar  abounded.  These  were  driven  by 
beaters  into  open  spaces,  there  to  be  pursued  by 
men  on  horseback  armed  with  bows  and  arrows. 
In  the  fourth  century  the  pastime  of  hawking 
was  introduced.  It  came  from  Korea :  a  king 
of  that  country  sent  a  present  of  falcons  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  who  caused  a  special  office  to 
be  organised  for  the  care  of  the  birds. 

Chinese  annalists,  writing  in  the  third  century, 
allege  that  the  Japanese  tattooed  their  faces  and 
bodies,  the  positions  and  size  of  the  designs  con- 
stituting an  indication  of  rank.  Tattooing  the 
body  and  cutting  the  hair  were  counted  by  the 
Chinese  as  violations  of  the  rules  of  civilisation, 
and  they  offer  an  interesting  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  these  customs  in  Japan.  They  allege 
that  the  first  rulers  of  that  country  were  wander- 
ing princes  of  the  Chou  dynasty  ( 1 200  B.  c.)  who 
abandoned  their  patrimony  in  China,  and  mi- 
grated southwards,  cutting  their  hair  and  tattoo- 
ing themselves,  to  mark  the  completeness  of  their 
expatriation.  The  theory  is  quite  untenable. 
One  well-known  Chinese  work  regards  tattooing 
in  Japan  as  a  protection  against  the  attacks  of 
marine  creatures  of  prey.  But  there  are  strong 
reasons  to  doubt  whether  tattooing  was  at  any 
time  prevalent  among  the  Japanese  proper.  Pos- 
sibly Chinese  writers  failed  to  distinguish  between 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Riukiu  archipelago  and  the 
people  of  Nippon,  for  tattooing  of  the  face  was 
never  practised  by  the  Japanese,  whereas  the 

6? 


JAPAN 

habit  did  prevail  among  the  people  of  Riukiu. 
Another  reasonable  hypothesis  is  that  tattooing 
was  introduced  among  a  limited  section  of  the 
nation  when  Japan  received  the  Malayan  element 
of  her  population.  At  all  events,  in  every  era 
it  was  confined  to  the  lowest  classes,  namely,  those 
who  bared  their  bodies  to  perform  the  severe 
labour  falling  to  their  lot. 

These  Chinese  annalists  confirm  the  supposition 
suggested  by  the  rituals,  as  noted  above,  that 
crimes  of  larceny  and  burglary  were  very  rare  in 
old  Japan.  They  say,  also,  that  Japanese  women 
were  neither  sensual  nor  jealous,  which  is  as- 
suredly true  in  modern  times  and  seems  to  have 
been  true  in  every  age  of  the  nation's  existence. 
Another  fact  adduced  in  praise  of  the  people  was 
that  they  gave  the  law  courts  very  little  occupa- 
tion. But  there  is  an  unfavourable  interpretation 
of  that  state  of  affairs.  The  severity  of  the  law, 
when  occasion  for  its  enforcement  did  arise,  was 
terrible.  If  political  considerations  aggravated  a 
crime,  the  whole  family  of  the  criminal  were 
executed,  and  sometimes  every  member,  even  to 
distant  relations,  was  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
serfdom.  The  people  in  general  may  be  said  to 
have  been  serfs  with  regard  to  the  interval  separat- 
ing them  from  the  upper  classes.  Thus,  if  an 
inferior  met  a  superior,  the  former  had  to  step 
aside  and  bow  profoundly.  He  was  further 
required  to  squat,  or  kneel,  with  both  hands  on 
the  ground,  when  addressing  a  man  of  rank. 

68 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

That  custom  appears  to  have  existed  from  the 
earliest  time,  and  cannot  be  said  to  have  yet 
become  wholly  extinct. 

The  accounts  that  Chinese  annalists  in  the 
third  century  gave  of  contemporaneous  Japan, 
indicate  that  intercourse  existed  between  the  two 
countries  at  that  remote  epoch.  Indeed  China 
and  Korea  began  at  an  early  date  to  act  some 
part  in  the  civilisation  of  Japan,  and  the  Japanese 
themselves  have  always  frankly  admitted  that 
they  owe  many  of  their  refinements  and  accom- 
plishments to  their  continental  neighbours.  But 
the  common  belief  about  that  matter  needs 
modification. 

One  naturally  expects  that  since  a  section  of 
the  original  Japanese  colonists  arrived  via  Korea, 
they  must  have  received  some  impress  of  that 
country's  civilisation  during  their  passage  through 
it,  and  must  also  have  preserved  permanent  touch 
with  it  subsequently.  The  former  anticipation 
is  largely  borne  out  by  a  comparison  of  the  two 
countries'  customs,  for  they  practised  in  common 
the  rules  that  prisoners  taken  in  war  and  members 
of  a  criminal's  family  should  be  reduced  to  slavery  ; 
that  the  corpses  of  persons  executed  for  crime 
should  be  exposed ;  that  the  personal  attendants 
of  a  high  dignitary  should  be  buried  alive  at  his 
interment ;  that  a  bridegroom  should  visit  his 
bride  at  her  own  house ;  that  before  engaging 
in  war  or  undertaking  any  important  enterprise, 
prayer  should  be  addressed  to  heaven  and  augu- 


JAPAN 

ries  drawn  from  scorched  bones,  and  that  festivals 
in  honour  of  the  deities  should  be  held  in  spring, 
in  autumn,  and  at  the  close  of  the  year.  There 
is  here  too  much  similarity  to  be  merely  fortui- 
tous. But  as  to  the  relations  between  the  two 
nations,  they  were  limited  for  a  long  time  to 
mutual  raids.  In  the  century  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  Christian  era,  when  the  Japanese  had 
been  reduced  almost  to  helplessness  by  a  pesti- 
lence, the  first  historical  reference  to  Korea  is 
found,  namely,  that  an  incursion  of  Korean  free- 
booters took  place  into  the  island  of  Kiushiu, 
and  that  thousands  of  the  invaders  settled  in  the 
deserted  hamlets  of  the  plague-stricken  Japanese. 
Japan's  attention  was  thus  disagreeably  directed 
towards  her  neighbour,  and  when,  by  and  by, 
inter-tribal  disputes  disturbed  the  peace  of  Korea, 
the  Yamato  rulers  were  easily  induced  to  inter- 
fere. It  appears,  further,  that  Korea  constantly 
lent  assistance  to  the  semi-savage  aborigines  of 
Kiushiu,  whose  subjugation  long  remained  a  diffi- 
cult problem  for  the  Japanese.  Indeed,  the  only 
questions  of  foreign  policy  with  which  the  early 
Japanese  colonists  had  to  deal  arose  out  of  the 
fact  that  the  autochthons  whom  they  sought  to 
bring  under  their  sway,  received  aid  in  the  south 
from  Korea  and  in  the  north  from  the  Tartars. 
There  was  not  much  probability  that  Japan  would 
become  a  disciple  of  Korean  ethics  under  such 
circumstances.  Hence,  though  Korea  and  China 
are  often  bracketed  together  as  Japan's  instructors, 

70 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

the  truth  is  that  Korea  was  only  a  channel,  whereas 
China  was  a  source.  Originally  Korea  did  not 
stand  on  a  much  higher  plane  than  her  island 
neighbour  in  any  respect,  and  in  some  her  level 
was  distinctly  lower.  But  when  she  came  within 
the  range  of  Chinese  civilisation,  she  began  to 
reflect  a  faint  light.  Her  record  ought  to  have 
been  better  than  it  is,  for  she  fell  under  the  direct 
influence  of  China  at  a  very  early  date.  In  the 
twelfth  century  before  Christ,  a  band  of  Chinese 
wanderers  found  their  way  to  the  eastern  region 
of  the  peninsula,  and  settling  there,  imparted  to 
the  tribe  which  received  them  forms  of  etiquette, 
principles  of  justice,  methods  of  irrigation,  tillage, 
sericulture,  and  weaving,  and  the  provisions  of 
"  the  Eight  Fundamental  Laws."  Again,  in  the 
first  century  before  Christ,  a  group  of  Chinese 
nobles,  accompanying  a  fugitive  prince,  established 
themselves  in  the  district  lying  nearest  to  Japan. 
And  in  the  second  century  after  Christ,  north- 
western Korea  was  overrun  by  a  Chinese  army, 
and  divided  into  four  districts  each  under  the  rule 
of  a  Chinese  satrap.  If,  then,  the  atmosphere  of 
Korea  had  been  favourable  to  the  growth  of 
Chinese  civilisation,  she  should  have  become  a 
well-equipped  teacher  for  Japan  at  an  early  date. 
But  she  never  showed  any  strongly  receptive 
faculty.  Japan  had  to  go  direct  to  China,  and 
that  was  an  immense  undertaking  in  days  when 
means  of  communication  were  primitive.  The 
character  that  the  journey  bore  in  the  recollection 


JAPAN 

of  persons  making  it  may  be  gathered  from  the 
writings  of  Chonen,  a  Bonze,  who,  in  company 
with  five  acolytes,  travelled  to  the  Court  of  a 
Sung  emperor,  in  the  year  984  A.  D.  :  "I  turn 
my  face  to  the  setting  sun,  and  journey  westward 
over  a  hundred  thousand  //  (thirty-three  thousand 
miles)  of  boundless  billows.  I  watch  for  the 
monsoon  and  return  eastward,  climbing  over 
thousands  of  thousands  of  wave-mountain  peaks. 
Towards  the  end  of  summer,  I  raise  my  anchor 
at  Cheh-Kiang,  and,  in  the  early  spring,  I  reach 
the  suburbs  of  my  metropolis."  Thus  the  journey 
occupied  six  months  even  in  Chonen's  day.  What 
time  and  toil  must  it  have  involved  nine  centu- 
ries earlier  !  The  Japanese  appear  to  have  essayed 
it  only  thrice  during  the  three  opening  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era :  first  in  the  year  57  A.  D., 
when  envoys,  visiting  the  Chinese  court,  received 
from  the  ruler  of  the  Middle  Kingdom  a  gold 
seal  and  a  ribbon ;  secondly  in  1 07  A.  D.,  when 
a  hundred  and  sixty  slaves  were  presented  for  the 
Chinese  monarch's  acceptance ;  and  thirdly  in 
238  A.  D.  These  facts  are  quoted  from  Chinese 
history.  In  Japanese  annals  the  third  embassy 
takes  the  form  of  an  armed  invasion  of  Korea, 
and  constitutes  one  of  the  most  celebrated  as 
well  as  one  of  the  most  disputed  incidents  of 
Japan's  story.  A  female  chieftain,  the  Empress 
Jingo,  is  represented  as  having  organised  the 
expedition  in  obedience  to  divine  orders.  Her 
flotilla,  led  by  a  fierce  deity  and  protected  by  a 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

benignant  god,  travelled  over  sea  on  the  crest  of 
a  tidal  wave,  and  sweeping  into  the  realm  of  her 
enemy,  terrified  him  into  unresisting  submission. 
At  the  portals  of  the  Korean  palace  she  set  up 
her  staff  and  spear  to  stand  there  for  five  centuries, 
and  she  compelled  the  monarch  of  the  defeated 
nation  to  swear  that  until  the  sun  rose  in  the 
west  and  set  in  the  east,  until  streams  flowed 
towards  their  source,  until  pebbles  from  the 
river  bed  ascended  to  the  sky  and  became  stars, 
his  allegiance  should  remain  inviolate.  That  is 
the  romantic  and  picturesque  form  into  which 
the  writers  of  Japanese  history  (the  Nihongi} 
wove  the  legend  four  centuries  later.  But  modern 
critics  have  discovered  discrepancies  which  induce 
them  to  cut  down  the  tale  to  vanishing  propor- 
tions, and  to  dismiss  Jingo  as  a  myth.  Their 
iconoclasm  is  probably  excessive.  For  Chinese 
annalists  say  that,  at  the  very  time  when  Jingo's 
figure  is  so  picturesquely  painted  on  the  pages  of 
Japanese  records,  a  female  sovereign  of  Japan 
sent  to  the  Court  of  China  an  embassy  which 
had  to  beg  permission  from  the  ruler  of  north- 
western Korea  to  pass  through  his  territory  en 
route  westward.  Thus,  although  the  celebrated 
empress'  foreign  policy  be  stripped  of  its  brilliant 
conquests  and  reduced  to  the  dimensions  of  mere 
envoy-sending,  her  personality  at  least  is  recalled 
from  the  mythical  regions  to  which  some  sino- 
logues would  relegate  it.  The  Chinese  relate,  it 
may  be  mentioned  incidentally,  that  she  was  old 

73 


JAPAN 

and  unmarried  at  the  time  of  the  coming  of  her 
envoys ;  that  she  possessed  skill  in  magic  arts,  by 
which  she  deluded  her  people ;  that  she  had  a 
thousand  female  attendants,  but  suffered  no  man 
to  see  her  face  except  one  official,  who  served  her 
meals  and  acted  as  a  means  of  communication 
with  her  subjects ;  and  that  she  dwelt  in  a  palace 
with  lofty  pavilions  surrounded  by  a  stockade  and 
guarded  by  soldiers. 

Only  three  instances  of  direct  official  commu- 
nication with  China  during  the  first  thousand 
years  of  Japan's  supposed  national  existence  imply 
very  scanty  access  to  the  great  fount  of  Far- 
Eastern  civilisation.  Yet,  from  another  point  of 
view,  these  embassies  are  significant.  For  when 
Japan  sent  her  first  envoys  to  Loyang,  the  then 
capital  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  she  had  never 
been  invaded  by  her  neighbour's  forces,  nor  ever 
even  threatened  with  invasion,  and  in  the  com- 
plete absence  of  tangible  displays  of  military 
prowess  —  the  only  universally  recognised  pass- 
port to  international  respect  in  those  epochs  — 
the  homage  that  China  received  from  the  island 
empire  bears  eloquent  testimony  to  the  position 
the  former  held  in  the  Orient.  In  truth  she 
towered  gigantic  above  the  heads  of  Far- 
Eastern  States  in  everything  that  makes  for 
national  greatness.  The  close  of  the  third  cen- 
tury saw  the  rise  of  the  Han  dynasty  and  the 
completion  of  the  magnificent  engineering  works 
at  the  Shensi  metropolis ;  works  which  still 

74 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

excite  the  world's  wonder  and  must  have  appeared 
almost  miraculous  in  the  eyes  of  people  such  as 
the  Japanese  were  in  that  era.  It  is  therefore 
surprising,  that  the  interval  between  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  two  empires  remained  so  long 
unbridged,  and  the  explanation  suggested  by  the 
above  retrospect  is  that  Korea  proved  a  bad 
medium  of  transmission,  and  that  China  was 
almost  inaccessible  by  direct  means.  Some 
special  factor  was  needed  to  bring  the  real  China 
within  easier  reach  of  Japanese  observation,  and 
that  factor  was  furnished  in  the  fourth  century 
by  a  wave  of  Chinese  colonists  who  came  to 
Japan  in  search  of  profitable  enterprises.  Nothing 
is  known  about  the  prime  cause  of  their  migra- 
tion, but  the  Chinese  seem  to  have  been  as 
ardent  fortune-questers  fifteen  centuries  ago  as 
they  are  to-day,  and  seeing  that  they  had  already 
exploited  the  northwest,  the  east  and  the  south- 
west of  Korea,  the  fact  that  they  pushed  on  to 
Japan  excites  no  surprise.  A  large  ingress  of 
Koreans  occurred  at  nearly  the  same  time.  They 
were  not  voluntary  emigrants,  but  fugitives  from 
the  effects  of  defeat  in  civil  war.  Their  advent, 
however,  compared  with  that  of  the  Chinese,  had 
no  special  importance  except  as  illustrating 
Japan's  freedom  from  international  exclusiveness 
at  that  epoch. 

The  Chinese  brought  with  them  a  compilation 
destined  to  serve  as  a  primer  to  Japanese  students 
in  all  ages,  "The  Thousand  Characters,"  that 

75 


JAPAN 

is  to  say,  a  book  containing  a  selection  of  the 
ideographs  in  commonest  daily  use ;  and  they 
brought  also  the  "  Analects  of  Confucius,"  which 
soon  became,  and  has  ever  since  remained,  the 
gospel  of  Japanese  ethics.  There  is  no  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  existence  of  an  ideographic  script 
was  known  to  the  Japanese  long  before  the  fourth 
century.  That  conclusion  is  easily  reached.  For 
whatever  may  be  said  about  the  legend  that  the 
diagrams  of  Fuh  (3200  B.C.)  or  the  tortoise- 
shell  mottling  of  Tsang  (2700  B.  c.)  was  the 
embryo  of  the  ideograph,  unquestionably  the 
Chinese  developed  that  form  of  writing  as  far 
back  as  the  eighteenth  century  before  Christ ;  and 
since  they  virtually  began  to  overrun  Korea  six 
hundred  years  subsequently,  and  intercourse 
existed  between  Korea  and  Japan  from  a  date 
certainly  not  later  than  a  thousand  years  after  the 
latter  event,  it  is  plain  that  both  Korea  and  Japan 
must  have  known  about  the  ideograph  long 
before  "The  Thousand  Characters"  and  the 
"  Analects  of  Confucius "  reached  the  Court  at 
Yamato.  But  to  know  about  the  ideograph  and 
to  use  it  are  two  very  different  things.  An 
alphabet,  or  even  a  syllabary,  being  a  purely 
phonetic  vehicle,  lends  itself  to  the  transcription 
of  any  language.  But  ideographs,  having  their 
own  inflexible  sounds  and  their  own  fixed  sig- 
nificances, cannot  readily  serve  to  transcribe  the 
words  of  a  foreign  language  which  have  different 
sounds  and  different  significances.  Suppose  that 

76 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

it  were  required  to  write  English  by  means  of 
Greek  monosyllables.  Such  a  word  as  "  garrison," 
for  instance,  might  be  composed  phonetically  by 
putting  together  yap  is  and  ov,  but  if  these  mono- 
syllables necessarily  conveyed  the  meaning  of 
"  for,"  "  strength,"  and  "  his  "  respectively,  it 
would  be  perplexing  to  have  to  attach  to  their 
combination  the  meaning  of  "  a  body  of  troops 
for  the  defence  of  a  fortress."  That  is  a  compara- 
tively easy  example  of  the  task  that  confronted 
the  Japanese  when  they  attempted  to  adapt  the 
ideographs  of  China  to  the  uses  of  their  own 
language.  In  fact,  they  did  not  think  of  making 
the  attempt  until  the  ideograph  had  been  known 
to  them  as  a  kind  of  distant  acquaintance  for 
many  generations,  and  even  when  the  "  Analects  " 
reached  them,  their  ambition  was  limited  at  first 
to  deciphering  the  strange  script.  History  has 
not  thought  it  worth  while  to  record  how  or  by 
whose  genius  the  ideographs  were  first  employed 
as  a  kind  of  syllabary  for  the  purpose  of  writing 
Japanese.  That  is  what  had  virtually  happened, 
however,  before  the  fifth  century.  And  very 
soon  something  else  happened  also,  namely,  a 
radical  modification  of  the  Japanese  language. 
For  the  more  familiar  the  knowledge  that 
students  obtained  of  the  ideograph,  the  less  could 
they  reconcile  themselves  to  use  it  in  a  purely 
phonetic  manner.  It  conveyed  to  their  eyes  a 
significance  quite  unconnected  with  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Japanese  word  its  sound  conveyed  to 

77 


JAPAN 

their  ears.  Therefore  by  degrees  sense  took 
precedence  of  sound,  and  Japanese  words  were 
transcribed  by  means  of  ideographs  which  corre- 
sponded with  their  meaning,  but  were  pronounced 
in  a  new  manner,  divested  of  all  the  harshness 
and  confusing  tones  of  the  Chinese  tongue.  This 
is  a  wearisome  subject,  but  some  knowledge  of 
it  is  essential  to  any  one  desirous  of  understanding 
the  genius  of  the  Japanese  language  and  appreci- 
ating its  unique  excellence  as  a  vehicle  for  translat- 
ing new  ideas.  Suppose  that  a  Japanese  wants  to 
write  the  compound  word  "  Western-jewel/' 
In  his  own  original  language  the  sounds  would 
be  nishi-no-tama.  But  he  takes  two  ideographs 
which  in  China  are  pronounced  see-yuh,  and 
having  written  them  down  in  their  proper  sense, 
he  reads  them  either  sai-gyoku  or  nishi-no-tama , 
calling  the  former  the  on,  or  Chinese  pronuncia- 
tion —  though  it  is  really  a  Japanese  modification 
of  the  Chinese  sounds  —  and  the  latter  the  kun, 
or  pure  Japanese  sound.  Hence  one  of  the 
results  of  using  the  ideographs  was  that  the 
Japanese  language  acquired  an  alternative  pro- 
nunciation :  it  became  a  dual  language  as  to 
sound  without  changing  its  construction.  It 
acquired  also  an  extraordinary  capacity  of  expan- 
sion, becoming  the  most  flexible  vehicle  for 
translating  ideas  that  the  world  has  ever  possessed. 
For  the  Chinese  language,  which  was  thus 
grafted  on  the  Japanese,  is  not  so  much  a  col- 
lection of  words  as  a  vast  thesaurus  of  materials 

78 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

for  constructing  words.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  repertoire 
of  forty  thousand  monosyllables  each  of  which 
has  its  exact  significance.  These  syllables  may 
be  used  singly,  or  combined  two,  three,  four,  or 
five  at  a  time,  so  as  to  convey  every  conceivable 
idea,  however  complex,  delicate,  or  abstruse. 
The  genius  of  man  has  never  invented  any 
machinery  so  perfect  for  converting  thoughts 
into  sounds.  Possessors  of  an  alphabet  may 
denounce  the  ideograph  as  a  clumsy,  semi- 
civilised  form  of  writing,  and  may  accuse  it  of 
developing  the  mechanics  of  memory  at  the 
expense  of  the  intellectual  faculty.  But  the 
Chinese  ideographist  can  oppose  to  such  criti- 
cism the  answer  that  as  a  vehicle  for  rendering 
the  products  of  the  mind  the  ideograph  is  with- 
out rival,  and  that,  while  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  to 
devise  a  vocabulary  for  his  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical developments  by  the  halting  aid  of  dead 
languages,  exact  equivalents  for  every  new  con- 
ception can  be  coined  readily  by  the  unassisted 
ideographic  mint.  The  chronological  sequence 
of  this  retrospect  may  be  anticipated  so  far  as  to 
say  that  it  was  owing  to  the  possession  of  such 
mechanism  that  the  Japanese  scholar  found  no 
serious  difficulty  in  fitting  an  accurate  terminology 
to  the  multitude  of  novel  ideas  presented  to  him 
by  Western  civilisation  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
just  as  it  would  scarcely  have  been  possible  for 
him  to  assimilate  the  ethics  of  Confucianism  and 
the  civilisation  of  China  fifteen  centuries  earlier, 

79 


JAPAN 

had  he  not  simultaneously  made  this  great 
linguistic  acquisition.1 

But,  as  stated  above,  the  Japanese  had  long 
been  admiring  and  marvelling  at  the  ideographic 
script,  and  had  long  been  studying  it  solely  for 
the  sake  of  the  literature  to  which  it  gave  access, 
before  they  succeeded  in  using  it  to  transcribe 
their  own  language.  That  they  seem  to  have 
done  during  the  sixth  century,  for  towards  its 
close  they  began  to  compile  the  first  records  of 
their  country's  history,  —  began  to  reduce  to  writ- 
ing such  tales  as  had  been  handed  down  by  tra- 
dition during  the  preceding  twelve  hundred  years. 
A  celebrated  litterateur,  statesman,  and  religionist, 
Prince  Shotoku,  and  an  equally  celebrated  Prime 
Minister  and  patron  of  Buddhism,  Soga  no 
Umako,  essayed  this  maiden  historiographical 
task.  Their  work  did  not  survive,  but  there  is 
no  doubt  that  much  of  its  contents  found  a  place 
in  the  Kojiki  and  Nihongi  of  the  eighth  century, 
the  oldest  Japanese  annals  now  extant. 

Here  an  interesting  question  suggests  itself. 
According  to  the  most  conservative  estimate, 
China  had  possessed  a  written  history  for  at  least 
nine  hundred  years  before  the  first  Japanese 
envoys  reached  her  shores.  Does  her  history 
show  that  she  knew,  or  thought  she  knew,  any- 
thing about  the  Japanese  before  they  introduced 
themselves  to  her  notice  by  means  of  ambassadors  ? 
Of  course  it  is  quite  plain  that  the  two  nations 

1  See  Appendix,  note  10. 

80 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

must  have  had  some  intercourse  prior  to  the 
opening  of  official  relations  ;  otherwise  the  Japan- 
ese envoys  could  not  have  been  intelligible  when 
they  reached  the  Chinese  Court.  The  question 
here,  however,  is  not  of  Chinese  history  relating 
to  a  remote  past.  The  question  is,  Did  Prince 
Shotoku  and  Premier  Umako  find  in  Chinese 
history,  when  its  pages  were  first  opened  for  their 
inspection,  any  explanation  of  the  Japanese  na- 
tion's origin  ?  It  has  been  related  that  the  pre- 
decessors of  Japan's  first  mortal  sovereign  are 
declared  by  her  historians  to  have  been  heavenly 
deities,  and  that  the  recorded  incidents  of  their 
careers  are  fabulous  and  supernatural.  Now  the 
only  islands  spoken  of  by  the  early  Chinese  his- 
torians in  terms  suggesting  Japan,  are  described 
as  the  abode  of  genii,  the  land  of  immortals  pos- 
sessing the  elixir  of  life,  a  corpse-reviving  drug, 
golden  peaches  weighing  a  pound  each,  timber 
of  immense  strength  yet  so  buoyant  that  no  super- 
imposed weight  would  sink  it,  rare  trees,  a  moun- 
tain plant  that  could  be  plaited  into  mats  and 
cushions,  mulberries  an  inch  long,  and  an  envi- 
ronment of  black  sea,  where  the  waves,  not 
driven  by  any  wind,  rose  to  a  height  of  a  thou- 
sand feet.  At  the  risk  of  challenging  a  cherished 
faith,  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  hypothesis  that 
from  these  fables  the  compilers  of  Japan's  first 
written  history  derived  the  idea  of  an  "  age  of 
the  gods  "  and  of  a  divinely  descended  emperor. 
The  unique  qualification  of  Shotoku  and  Umako 
6  81 


JAPAN 

for  their  task  of  history-making  was  familiarity 
with  Chinese  ideographic  script  and  with  the 
literature  of  the  Middle  Kingdom.  Could  any- 
thing be  more  natural,  more  inevitable,  than  that 
they  should  sjearch  the  pages  of  that  literature  for 
information  about  the  early  ages  of  their  nation's 
existence ;  or  that  they  should  place  implicit 
reliance  upon  all  the  information  thus  acquired  ? 
A  child,  when  it  sits  down  to  transcribe  the 
head-lines  of  its  first  copy-book,  does  not  think 
of  questioning  the  logic  or  morality  of  the  pre- 
cepts inscribed  there.  Shotoku  and  Umako  were 
in  the  position  of  children  so  far  as  Chinese 
historical  records  were  concerned.  From  the 
annalists  of  the  kingdom  at  whose  civilised  feet 
the  whole  semi-barbarous  world  sat,  they  learned 
that,  prior  to  the  year  700  B.  c.,  islands  lying  in 
the  region  of  Japan  had  been  known  as  the  habi- 
tation of  genii  and  immortals,  and  with  immortals 
and  genii  the  Prince  and  the  Prime  Minister 
peopled  the  Japanese  Islands. 

Sinologues  have  shown  that  these  primitive 
Japanese  annals  contain  internal  evidence  of  ex- 
tensive reliance  on  Chinese  sources.  The  posthu- 
mous names  —  that  is  to  say,  the  historical  names 
—  given  to  the  forty-two  emperors  from  Jimmu 
to  Mommu  (697  A.  D.),  are  all  constructed  on 
Chinese  models ;  the  name  "  Jimmu "  itself  is 
an  exact  imitation  of  the  title  chosen  by  the 
Toba  Tartars  for  their  remote  ancestor  ;  the  war- 
like lady  whose  alleged  invasion  of  Korea  stands 

82 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

out  so  prominently  in  Japan's  ancient  history, 
was  evidently  called  after  the  Chinese  Empress 
Wu,  whose  name  and  style  corresponded  with 
"  Jingo."  Of  course,  it  is  not  implied  that  every 
event  recorded  in  Japan's  first  written  annals  is 
to  be  counted  of  foreign  suggestion.  Domestic 
traditions,  more  or  less  trustworthy,  are  doubt- 
less embodied  in  their  pages,  as  well  as  reflec- 
tions of  Chinese  prehistorical  myths.  But  it 
does  seem  a  reasonable  conclusion  that,  among 
many  borrowings  made  by  Japan  from  China, 
the  idea  of  her  "  Age  of  Gods "  has  to  be 
included. 

The  sequence  of  events  has  been  somewhat 
anticipated  here  for  the  sake  of  explaining  the 
introduction  of  ideographic  script  into  Japan,  an 
event  belonging  to  the  second  half  of  the  sixth 
century.  During  the  interval  of  nearly  two 
hundred  years  which  separated  that  consumma- 
tion from  the  great  wave  of  Chinese  and  Korean 
immigration  that  reached  Japan  in  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century,  marked  progress  had  been 
made  in  many  of  the  essentials  of  civilisation. 
The  science  of  canal  cutting,  the  art  of  fine  em- 
broidery, improved  methods  of  sericulture  and 
of  silk-weaving  were  introduced  by  the  immi- 
grants, and  the  intelligent  interest  taken  by  the 
Government  in  encouraging  progress  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  it  caused  the  new- 
comers to  distribute  themselves  throughout  the 
country  so  as  to  extend  the  range  of  their  instruc- 

83 


JAPAN 

tion.  Some  idea  of  the  part  played  by  these 
immigrants  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that,  in  the 
second  half  of  the  fifth  century,  when  it  was 
deemed  advisable  to  re-assemble  the  foreign  ex- 
perts and  organise  them  into  separate  departments, 
the  families  enrolled  in  the  sericultural  section 
alone  aggregated  nearly  nineteen  thousand  mem- 
bers. By  this  time  (450  A.  D.)  the  policy  of 
specially  importing  skilled  aid  direct  from  China 
had  been  inaugurated,  and  large  bodies  of  female 
weavers  and  embroiderers  were  invited  to  settle 
in  Japan.  They  taught  the  use  of  the  loom  so 
successfully  that  fine  brocades  for  the  palace  were 
among  the  products  of  the  time.  At  the  same 
epoch  the  first  two-storeyed  house  was  constructed. 
It  is  strange  that  the  Japanese,  who  through  their 
embassies  to  the  Hany  the  Tsin,  and  the  Song 
Courts,  must  have  acquired  some  knowledge  of 
the  splendours  of  the  Chinese  capitals  as  Loyang, 
Hsian,  and  Nanking,  should  have  been  content  to 
live  until  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  in  log 
huts  tied  together  with  wild-vine  ligatures.  Such 
is  the  fact,  however,  and  no  explanation  has  been 
suggested.  A  little  later,  but  still  in  the  fifth 
century,  the  art  of  tanning  skins  was  imparted 
by  Korean  immigrants  and  greatly  developed  by 
Chinese  instruction. 

In  the  domain  of  morals,  the  fourth  century, 
as  has  been  shown,  brought  to  Japan  a  knowledge 
of  the  Chinese  classics,  and  her  historians  claim 
that  she  then  learnt  the  golden  rule,  as  well  as 

84 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

the  Confucian  precepts  of  refraining  from  excess, 
abhorring  evil  and  curbing  the  passions.  They 
also  claim  that  she  quickly  began  to  practise  these 
ethical  canons,  and  they  point  to  the  career  of 
the  Emperor  Nintoku  (313—399)  as  an  example 
of  the  new  morality.  But-  Nintoku,  though  he 
displayed  some  of  the  most  picturesque  virtues  of 
a  ruler,  was  an  extreme  type  of  libertine.  He 
crowned  a  long  list  of  excesses  by  marrying  his 
step-mother's  daughter.  Fifty  years  later,  the 
Nero  of  Japanese  history  appeared  in  the  person 
of  Yuraku  (457—459),  who  exiled  an  official  in 
order  to  obtain  possession  of  his  wife,  and  per- 
petrated a  wholesale  slaughter  of  his  own  brothers, 
their  children,  and  other  members  of  the  Imperial 
family.  His  successor  (Seinei)  carried  out  a 
similar  massacre,  and  the  Imperial  line  would 
have  become  extinct  had  not  a  child  been  secreted 
and  reduced  to  the  position  of  a  serf  in  order  to 
escape  the  quest  of  the  official  assassins.  Buretsu, 
who  reigned  a  few  decades  later  (499—507),  ranks 
even  below  Yuraku  as  a  fierce  and  merciless 
despot,  and  at  the  same  time  the  great  families 
who  had  become  depositories  of  administrative 
power  behaved  with  the  utmost  arrogance,  de- 
spising the  laws,  defying  the  sovereign's  authority, 
and  perpetrating  all  kinds  of  excesses.  In  brief, 
if  Confucianism,  and  its  comparatively  high  code 
of  moral  precepts,  obtained  recognition  in  Japan 
during  the  fourth  century,  its  civilising  influence 
is  not  to  be  detected  in  the  fifth,  which  may 


JAPAN 

justly  be  called  the  blackest  era  in  the  history  of 
Japanese  imperialism. 

Of  course  the  moral  condition  of  the  inferior 
classes  was  not  better  than  that  of  the  Court. 
The  selfish  aims  of  religion  became  so  para- 
mount as  to  deprive  it  of  all  dignity.  Among 
the  tutelary  deities  added  to  the  pantheon  there 
were  some  whose  attributes  should  have  deprived 
them  of  any  title  to  respect ;  others  whose  vene- 
ration betrayed  a  scarcely  credible  depth  of  super- 
stition. An  extreme  example  was  the  worship  of 
caterpillars,  which,  at  that  epoch,  infested  the 
orange  trees  and  the  ginger  vines.  The  changes 
these  insects  underwent  were  considered  typical 
of  the  poor  growing  rich,  the  old  renewing  their 
youth,  and  men  built  shrines  and  offered  sacri- 
fices to  the  gods  thus  manifested. 

Society  was  disfigured  by  class  dissensions. 
The  great  families  which  for  over  a  thousand 
years  had  monopolised  the  principal  offices  of 
State  as  hereditary  rights,  were  no  longer  repre- 
sented by  one  or  two  households  ;  they  had 
grown  to  the  dimensions  of  clans,  and  their 
members  lived  on  the  proceeds  of  extortion  and 
oppression,  secured  by  the  collective  protection 
of  the  clan  against  inconvenient  results.  Profit 
and  prosperity  seem  to  have  been  the  paramount 
motives  of  the  era.  Servants  were  so  indifferent 
to  the  dictates  of  loyalty  that  they  turned  their 
hand  against  their  liege  lords,  and  wives  had  so 
little  sense  of  family  fidelity  that  they  cheated 

86 


ON    THE    VERGE    OF    HISTORY 

their  husbands.  Superstition  had  invaded  every 
domain  of  life.  There  existed  a  belief  that  ex- 
hibitions of  the  divine  will  could  always  be  ob- 
tained by  employing  some  process  of  divination 
or  repeating  some  formula  of  incantation.  Judi- 
cial decisions  were  based  entirely  on  the  result  of 
ordeal  ;  dreams  were  regarded  as  revelations  for 
guidance  at  important  crises,  and  the  necessity  of 
avoiding  pollution  dictated  grotesque  rules  of 
conduct.  Thus  the  mere  fact  of  encountering  a 
stranger,  or  of  coming  into  contact  with  any  of 
his  belongings,  was  held  to  cause  contamination 
that  demanded  a  service  of  purification,  and  a 
traveller  was  consequently  required  to  carry  a 
bell  which  he  rang  as  he  moved  along,  after  the 
manner  of  a  leper  in  mediaeval  Europe.  If  he 
boiled  his  food  by  the  roadside,  he  exposed  him- 
self to  the  lawful  displeasure  of  the  nearest 
household,  and  if  he  borrowed  cooking  utensils 
from  anyone  in  the  neighbourhood,  they  had  to 
be  solemnly  purified  before  being  returned  to 
their  owner  or  allowed  to  touch  any  other  ob- 
ject. Evidently  inns  could  not  exist  under  such 
circumstances,  and  the  difficulties  of  travel  were 
enormous,  as  everything  needed  for  the  journey 
must  be  carried  by  the  wayfarer.  A  woman  had 
to  be  moved  into  a  segregated  hut  at  the  time  of 
parturition,  and  a  ceremony  of  purification,  a 
species  of  "  churching,"  was  necessary  before  she 
might  return  to  her  place  in  society.  To  have 
been  present  at  a  sudden  death  was  another 

87 


JAPAN 

source  of  contamination,  rendering  a  man  re- 
sponsible to  the  nearest  house  or  hamlet,  and 
involving  elaborate  rites  of  cleansing.  It  resulted 
that  the  companions  of  a  man  who  fell  sick  by 
the  roadside  or  was  drowned,  used  generally  to 
fly  precipitately  without  waiting  to  succour  or 
inter  him,  the  promptings  of  charity  and  of  fel- 
lowship being  thus  subserved  to  the  dictates  of 
unreasoning  superstition.  In  short,  the  nation 
offered  a  striking  example  of  well-developed  ma- 
terial civilisation  side  by  side  with  most  rudimen- 
tary morality.  A  religion  was  wanted.  The 
Shintv  cult,  after  long  and  uninterrupted  trial,  a 
trial  lasting  for  more  than  eleven  hundred  years, 
had  proved  itself  essentially  deficient  in  the  guid- 
ing influences  of  a  creed.  Its  want  of  any  code 
of  sanctions  and  vetoes,  its  indifference  to  a  future 
state,  its  negative  rules  of  conduct,  its  exaltation 
of  deities  whose  powers  were  exercised  for  tem- 
poral purposes  only  —  all  these  attributes  de- 
prived it  of  elevating  effect  upon  the  masses. 
Confucianism  was  powerless  to  correct  these 
evils.  It  appealed  to  the  intellect  and  left  senti- 
ment untouched.  A  religion  was  wanted,  and  it 
came  in  the  form  of  Buddhism. 


88 


Chapter  IV 


JAPAN  IN  THE    EARLY   ERAS 
OF  HISrORT 


I 


greatest  event  in  the  career  of 
ancient  Japan  was  the  advent  of  Bud- 
dhism in  the  year  552  A.  D.  It  is 
usually  said  that  the  Indian  creed  came 
officially,  a  copy  of  its  scriptures  and  an  image  of 
Buddha  having  been  sent  to  the  Yamato  Court 
by  the  Government  of  one  of  the  Korean  King- 
doms. In  a  sense  this  statement  is  correct,  for 
without  that  ambassadorial  introduction  the  new 
religion  would  probably  have  long  remained  a 
comparative  stranger  to  the  mass  of  the  Japanese 
nation.  But  it  is  a  fact  that  the  doctrine  had 
been  preached  in  Japan  by  enterprising  mission- 
aries for  many  years  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Korean  envoy.  Unsuccessfully  preached,  how- 
ever. Buddhism  owes  much  to  its  accessories, — 
to  its  massive  and  magnificent  temples,  its 
majestic  images,  its  gorgeous  paraphernalia,  the 
rich  vestments  of  its  priests,  and  the  picturesque 
solemnity  of  its  services.  These  elements  must 
have  been  absent  failing  the  Government's  sanc- 
tion and  support.  Besides,  from  the  first  chapter 

89 


JAPAN 

of  Japanese  history  to  the  last,  there  is  no  in- 
stance of  a  radical  reform  effected,  or  a  novel 
system  inaugurated,  without  official  guidance. 
The  people's  part  has  always  been  to  follow;  the 
Government's  to  lead.  It  may  therefore  be  said 
with  truth  that  Buddhism  was  planted  officially 
in  Japan,  though  a  few  unfruitful  seeds  had  been 
previously  scattered  by  private  enterprise. 

How  came  it  that  the  Government  showed  a 
liberal  attitude  towards  an  alien  faith  ?  Was 
there  genuine  conviction  of  the  excellence  of  the 
Buddhist  doctrine,  or  did  some  other  cause 
operate  ? 

Both  questions  may  be  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive with  reservations.  The  first  Japanese 
Emperor  (Kimmei)  who  listened  to  the  new 
gospel  seems  to  have  found  it  mysterious,  lofty, 
and  attractive.  Its  doctrine  of  metempsychosis, 
its  law  of  causation,  its  theory  of  a  future  of 
supreme  rest,  charmed  and  startled  him.  But 
the  argument  most  potent  in  winning  his  support 
was  the  ambassador's  assurance  that  Buddhism 
had  become  the  faith  of  civilised  Asia.  Japan 
of  the  sixth  century  was  just  as  ambitious  to 
stand  on  the  highest  level  of  civilisation  as  Japan 
of  the  nineteenth.  She  turned  to  Buddhism  for 
the  sake  of  the  converts  it  had  already  won 
rather  than  for  the  sake  of  her  own  conversion. 
At  first,  the  attitude  of  the  Court  was  tentative. 
When  the  Sovereign  summoned  a  Council  of 
Ministers,  as  was  customary  in  those  days  of  pa- 

90 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

triarchal  administration,  only  the  premier  —  Soga 
no  Iname  —  espoused  the  cause  of  the  imported 
creed.  The  rest  declared  that  its  adoption  would 
insult  the  hundred  and  eighty  deities,  celestial 
and  terrestrial,  who  already  had  the  country  under 
their  tutelage.  The  Emperor  compromised  by 
entrusting  the  image  and  the  sutras  (Buddhist 
canons)  to  Iname  and  postponing  the  final  ques- 
tion of  adoption  or  rejection. 

There  has  never  been  any  attempt  to  explain 
why  the  Soga  family  embraced  Buddhism  with 
such  zealous  constancy.  Iname  and  his  son  and 
successor,  Umako,  gave  to  it  equally  steadfast 
support  in  the  face  of  fierce  opposition.  Twice 
the  Soga  mansion  was  destroyed  by  the  people, 
who  believed  that  the  conversion  of  the  Prime 
Minister's  house  into  a  temple  for  strange  deities 
had  brought  pestilence  upon  the  land.  Other 
excesses  were  committed.  A  nun  was  stripped 
and  publicly  whipped,  and  the  image  of  the 
Buddha  was  thrown  into  a  river.  But  these  epi- 
sodes did  not  shake  the  faith  of  the  Soga  family. 

Soon,  too,  a  powerful  coadjutor  appeared  in 
the  person  of  an  imperial  prince,  Shotoku,  whose 
figure  justly  occupies  the  frontispiece  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Japan's  moral  and  intellectual  prog- 
ress. Chiefly  through  his  ardent  patronage  and 
extraordinary  fervour  of  piety  Buddhism  became 
the  creed  of  the  Court  and  of  the  nobility. 

Military  strength  also  contributed  aid.  A 
statement  frequently  made  with  all  the  assurance 

91 


JAPAN 

of  historical  conviction  is  that  Buddhism  is 
essentially  a  peaceful  and  adaptive  creed  ;  that  it 
never  demolishes  other  faiths  but  rather  assimi- 
lates them.  That  is  certainly  true  of  Buddhism 
in  the  abstract,  but  its  establishment  in  Japan 
was  not  unaccompanied  by  a  sanguinary  exercise 
of  armed  force.  The  question  of  invoking 
Buddha's  succour  on  behalf  of  a  sick  emperor 
led  to  a  fierce  conflict  between  the  three  great 
political  parties  of  the  era,  with  the  result  that 
the  opponents  of  the  foreign  faith  suffered  defeat. 
They  had  been  led  by  one  of  the  ancient  princely 
families,  which  occupied  a  high  place  in  the 
official  hierarchy,  and  now  the  chiefs  of  the 
family  were  put  to  death,  its  estates  confiscated  to 
endow  the  first  great  Buddhist  temple,  and  its 
members  condemned  to  serve  as  slaves  in  the 
new  place  of  worship. 

Another  factor  that  made  for  the  spread  of 
Buddhism  was  the  zeal,  almost  fanatical,  of  the 
empress  Suiko,  who  reigned  during  the  epoch  of 
Prince  Shotoku's  reforms.  She  issued  edicts 
enjoining  the  adoption  of  the  faith  ;  ordered  that 
all  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the  Ministers  of 
State  should  have  images  of  Buddha  in  their  pos- 
session, and  conferred  rank  and  rewards  on  sculp- 
tors of  idols.  Indeed,  although  the  imperial 
ladies  of  Japan  acted  a  noble  role  in  her  early 
history,  their  careers  illustrate  the  truism  that  the 
emotional  element  of  female  character  is  a  dan- 
gerous factor  in  state  administration.  During  the 

92 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

period  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  years  from 
591  to  759,  fourteen  sovereigns  reigned,  and  five 
of  them  were  females.  A  sixth  lady  practically 
ruled  though  she  did  not  actually  reign.  The 
sway  of  these  Empresses  aggregated  seventy-one 
years,  and  every  one  of  them  carried  her  religious 
fervour  almost  to  the  point  of  hysteria.1  They 
were  certainly  instrumental  in  raising  Buddhism 
to  the  place  of  eminence  and  influence  it  occu- 
pied so  soon  after  its  arrival  in  Japan,  and  it  is 
not  surprising  to  find  that,  in  the  seventy-second 
year  after  the  Korean  ambassador's  coming,  the 
country  had  forty-six  temples,  eight  hundred  and 
sixteen  priests,  and  sixty  nuns.  Neither  is  it 
surprising  to  find  that,  in  obedience  to  Shinto 
precedents,  Buddhism  was  drawn  into  the  field 
of  politics,  and  Buddhist  priests  were  admitted  to 
a  share  in  the  administration.  For  the  extreme 
practice  of  these  methods  also  a  female  was 
responsible.  The  Empress-dowager  Koken 
(749-758)  organized  a  religious  government  dis- 
tinct from  the  secular,  issued  orders  for  the 
spiritual  regulation  of  men's  lives,  assisted  a 
monk  (Dokyo)  to  dethrone  the  Emperor,  and,  if 
she  did  not  sanction,  certainly  failed  to  check, 
the  crimes  he  perpetrated  to  prepare  his  own 
path  to  the  throne. 

Not  in  the  history  of  any  other  country  can 
there  be  found  a  parallel  for  the  large  support 
that  sovereign  after  sovereign  of  Japan  extended 

1  See  Appendix,  note   n. 

93 


JAPAN 

to  Buddhism  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries. 
Innumerable  temples  were  built  at  enormous 
expense  and  endowed  with  great  revenues. 
Quantities  of  the  precious  metals  were  devoted 
to  the  casting  of  idols  and  the  decoration  of  edi- 
fices to  hold  them.  Arbitrary  edicts  were  issued 
thrusting  the  faith  upon  the  people  by  force  of 
official  authority.1  It  even  became  customary  to 
surrender  the  highest  posts  and  honours  in  the 
empire  for  the  sake  of  taking  the  tonsure  and 
leading  a  recluse  life.2  Striking  testimony  to  the 
religious  fervour  of  the  Court  survives  in  the 
magnificent  assemblage  of  temples  in  and  about 
Nara.  Almost  the  whole  of  these  were  built  and 
furnished  during  the  seventy-five  years  (710-785) 
of  the  Court's  residence  at  that  place,  and  when 
it  is  remembered  that  the  immense  outlay  re- 
quired for  such  works  had  to  be  defrayed  by 
taxing  a  nation  of  only  four  and  a  half  millions 
of  people,  it  is  apparent  that  religious  zeal  com- 
pletely outran  financial  discretion.  It  is  a  con- 
stant assertion  of  foreign  critics  that  the  religious 
instinct  is  absent  from  the  character  of  the 
Japanese,  but  their  history  cannot  be  reconciled 
with  such  a  theory. 

Japanese  sovereignty,  as  has  been  shown  al- 
ready, was  based  upon  Shinto.  The  sovereigns  — 
"  sons  of  heaven  "  ( Tensfu\  as  they  were,  and  are 
still,  called  —  traced  their  descent  to  the  deities 
of  that  creed,  and  the  essence  of  their  adminis- 

1  See  Appendix,  note  12.  2  See  Appendix,  note  13. 

94 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

trative  title  was  that  they  interceded  with  the 
gods  for  the  people  they  governed.  All  their 
principal  traditions  and  temporal  interests  should 
have  dictated  the  rejection  of  a  creed  which 
preached  the  supremacy  of  a  new  god  and  took 
no  cognisance  of  their  divine  descent.  It  would 
have  been  in  accord  with  the  nature  of  political 
evolution  that  the  people  should  have  espoused 
the  doctrines  of  a  faith  which  absolved  them  from 
allegiance  to  their  rulers,  but  how  can  the  fact  be 
explained  that  the  rulers  themselves  patronised  a 
creed  which  annulled  their  sovereign  title  ?  Dur- 
ing  the  first  century  and  a  half  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Buddhism,  that  question  does  not  seem 
to  have  troubled  anyone  in  ancient  Japan.  If  it 
was  sometimes  urged  that  the  tutelary  deities 
might  be  offended  by  the  worship  of  a  strange 
god,  all  manifestations  of  their  umbrage  were 
associated  with  the  people's  welfare,  not  with 
the  sovereign's  titles,  and  no  one  seems  to  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  assert  the  divinity  of  the 
Mikado  against  the  alien  theocracy.1  When  the 
Prime  Minister,  Soga  no  Umako,  caused  the 
Emperor  Sujun  to  be  assassinated  (592  A.  D.), 
Prince  Shotoku  justified  the  act  by  explaining 
that  the  sovereign's  death  had  been  in  accordance 
with  the  Buddhist  doctrine  which  condemns  a 
man  to  suffer  in  this  life  for  sins  committed  in  a 
previous  state  of  existence.  Thus,  only  forty 
years  after  the  introduction  of  Buddhism,  the 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  14. 

95 


JAPAN 

lives  of  the  "  sons  of  heaven  "  were  declared 
subject  to  its  decrees.  A  century  later,  one  of 
the  Imperial  Princes  was  ordered  to  commit  sui- 
cide because  he  had  struck  a  mendicant  and 
clamorous  priest.  Only  from  the  sufferings  they 
inflicted  on  the  people  was  the  displeasure  of  the 
Shinto  deities  inferred.  Twice  their  hostility  to 
Buddhism  was  supposed  to  have  been  displayed 
by  visitations  of  pestilence,  and  at  last,  during 
the  reign  of  Shomu  (724-748),  when  the  enor- 
mous expenditure  incurred  on  account  of  temple 
building  and  idol  casting  had  so  impoverished 
the  people  as  to  produce  a  famine  with  its  usual 
sequel,  pestilence,  the  Shinto  disciples  once  again 
insisted  that  these  calamities  were  the  deities' 
protest  against  the  strange  faith.  It  was  then 
that  the  great  Buddhist  priest  Giyogi  saved  the 
situation  by  a  singularly  clever  theory.  He 
taught  that  the  Sun  Goddess,  the  chief  of  the 
Shinto  deities,  had  been  merely  an  incarnation  of 
the  Buddha,  and  that  the  same  was  true  of  all 
the  members  of  the  Shinto  pantheon.  The  two 
creeds  were  thus  reconciled,  and  as  evidence  of 
their  union  the  Emperor  caused  a  colossal  idol  to 
be  set  up,  the  celebrated  Daibutsu  (great  Buddha) 
of  Nara  ;  the  copper  used  for  the  body  of  the 
image  representing  the  Shinto  faith,  the  gold  that 
covered  it  typifying  Buddhism.  This  amalgama- 
tion was  for  the  sake  of  the  people's  safety ;  it 
had  nothing  to  do  with  rehabilitating  the  divine 
title  of  the  sovereign.  In  the  face  of  these  facts, 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

is  it  possible  to  conceive  that  any  such  title  ranked 
as  a  vital  tenet  of  the  nation's  political  creed? 
Must  not  the  theory  of  heavenly  descent  be  placed 
rather  in  the  category  of  traditions  which  had 
not  yet  begun  to  assume  the  paramount  im- 
portance subsequently  assigned  to  them  ? 

Thus,  almost  from  the  very  outset,  Buddhism 
received  the  strenuous  support  of  the  Imperial 
Court  and  of  the  nobles  alike.  Never  did  any 
alien  faith  find  warmer  welcome  in  a  foreign 
country.  It  had  virtually  nothing  to  contend 
against  except  the  corruption  and  excesses  of  its 
own  ministers.  The  lavish  patronage  extended 
to  them  disturbed  their  moral  balance.  From 
luxury  and  self-indulgence  they  passed  to  chi- 
canery and  political  intrigue,  until,  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighth  century,  one  of  them  actively  con- 
spired to  obtain  the  throne  for  himself.  Through- 
out the  whole  course  of  its  history  in  Japan,  alike 
in  ancient,  in  mediaeval,  and  in  modern  times, 
Buddhism  has  been  discredited  by  the  conduct 
of  its  priests.  But  it  has  also  numbered  among 
its  propagandists  many  men  of  transcendent 
ability,  lofty  aims,  and  fanatical  courage.  It 
found  its  way  to  the  heart  of  the  Japanese 
nation  less  for  the  sake  of  its  doctrines  than  for 
the  sake  of  the  civilisation  it  introduced.  Its 
priests  became  the  people's  teachers.  They  con- 
stituted a  bridge  across  which  there  passed  per- 
petually from  the  Asiatic  continent  to  Japan  a 
stream  of  new  knowledge.  To  enumerate  the 
7  97 


JAPAN 

improvements  and  innovations  that  came  to  her 
by  that  route  would  be  to  tell  almost  the  whole 
story  of  her  progress. 

The  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  are  among 
the  most  memorable  epochs  of  Japan's  history. 
They  witnessed  her  passage  from  a  comparatively 
rude  condition  to  a  state  of  civilisation  as  high  as 
that  attained  by  any  country  in  the  world,  from 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  rise  of 
modern  Occidental  nations,  and  they  witnessed 
also  a  political  revolution  the  exact  prototype  of 
that  which  has  made  her  remarkable  in  modern 
times. 

Prince  Shotoku  stands  at  the  head  of  the  move- 
ment of  progress.  Not  only  did  he  secure  the 
adoption  of  Buddhism,  but  he  also  organised  an 
administrative  system  embodying  the  first  germs 
of  practical  imperialism,  drafted  a  constitution 
and  compiled  the  earliest  historical  essays.  His 
constitution  is  full  of  interest  as  affording  a  clear 
outline  of  the  ethical  ideals  of  the  time  and  of  the 
polity  that  this  singularly  gifted  man  desired  to 
establish :  — 

i.  Concord  and  harmony  are  priceless  ;  obedience  to 
established  principles  is  the  fundamental  duty  of  man. 
But  in  our  country  each  section  of  the  people  has  its 
own  views  and  few  possess  the  light.  Disloyalty  to 
Sovereign  and  parent,  disputes  among  neighbours,  are 
the  results.  That  the  upper  classes  should  be  at  unity 
among  themselves  and  intimate  with  the  lower,  and  that 
all  matters  in  dispute  should  be  submitted  to  arbitra- 

98 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

tion  —  that  is  the  way  to  place  society  on  a  basis   of 
strict  justice.1 

3.  Imperial  edicts  must  be  respected.     The  Sover- 
eign is  to  be  regarded  as  the  heaven,  his  subjects  as  the 
earth.     The  heaven  hangs  above,  the  earth  sustains  it 
beneath ;  the  four  seasons  follow  in  ordered  succession, 
and  all  the  influences  of  nature  operate   satisfactorily. 
Should  the   earth   be   placed  above  the    heaven,  ruin 
would  at  once  ensue  for  the  universe.    So  the  Sovereign 
directs,  the  subject   conforms.     The  Sovereign   shows 
the  way,   the  subject   follows  it.     Indifference  to  the 
Imperial  edicts  signifies  national  ruin. 

4.  Courtesy  must  be  the  rule  of  conduct  for  all  the 
Ministers  and  officials  of  the  Government.     Wise  ad- 
ministration   of  national    affairs    has   its  roots   in    the 
observance  of  etiquette.    Without  etiquette  on  the  part 
of  the  superior,  it  is  impossible  to  govern  the  inferior, 
and  if  inferiors  ignore  etiquette,  they  will  certainly  be 
betrayed  into  offences.    Social  order  and  due  distinctions 
between  the  classes  can  only  be  preserved  by  strict  con- 
formity with  etiquette. 

5.  To  punish  the  evil  and  reward  the  good  is  hu* 
manity's  best  law.     A  good  deed  should  never  be  left 
unrecompensed  or  an  evil  unrebuked.     Sycophancy  and 
dishonesty  are  the  most  potent  factors  for  subverting 
the  State  and   destroying   the    people.     Flatterers  are 
never  wanting  to  recount  the  faults  of  inferiors  to  su- 
periors and  depict  the  latter's  errors  to  the  former.    To 
such  men  we  can  never  look  for  loyalty  to  the  Sovereign 
or  sympathy  with  their  fellow-subjects.     They  are  the 
chief  elements  of  national  disturbance. 

9.  To  be  just  one  must  have  faith.  Every  affair 
demands  a  certain  measure  of  faith  on  the  part  of  those 
that  deal  with  it.  Every  question,  whatever  its  nature 
or  tendency,  requires  for  its  settlement  an  exercise  of 

1  See  Appendix,  note  i  5. 

99 


JAPAN 

faith  and  authority.  Mutual  confidence  among  officials 
renders  all  things  possible  of  accomplishment ;  want  of 
confidence  between  Sovereign  and  subject  makes  failure 
inevitable. 

10.  Anger  is  to  be  curbed,  wrath  cast  away.  The 
faults  of  another  should  not  rouse  our  resentment. 
Every  man's  tendency  is  to  follow  the  bent  of  his  own 
inclination.  If  one  is  right,  the  other  is  wrong.  But 
neither  is  perfect.  Both  are  victims  of  passion  and 
prejudice,  and  no  one  has  exclusive  competence  to  dis- 
tinguish the  evil  from  the  good.  Sagacity  is  balanced 
by  silliness ;  small  qualities  are  combined  with  great, 
so  that  neither  is  salient  in  the  total,  even  as  a  sphere  is 
without  angles.  To  chide  a  fault  does  not  certainly 
prevent  its  repetition,  nor  can  the  censor  himself  be 
secure  against  error.  The  sure  road  to  accomplish- 
ment is  that  trodden  by  the  people  in  combination. 

14.  Those  in  authority  should  never  harbour  hatred 
or  jealousy  of  one  another.   Hate  begets  hate,  and  jealousy 
is  without  discernment.    A  wise  man  may  be  found  once 
in   five  hundred  years  ;    a  true  sage,  hardly  once  in  a 
thousand.     Yet  without  sages  no  country  can  be  gov- 
erned peacefully. 

15.  The  imperative  duty  of  man  in  his  capacity  of 
subject  is  to  sacrifice  his  private  interest  to  the  public 
good.     Egoism    forbids  cooperation,  and  without   co- 
operation there  cannot  be  any  great  achievement. 

Prince  Shotoku  spoke  with  the  wisdom  in- 
spired by  Buddhism  and  Confucianism.  But 
the  principles  of  constitutional  monarchism  that 
he  enunciated  so  plainly  were  suggested  by  the 
conditions  of  his  era.  The  patriarchal  families 
which  filled  the  principal  offices  of  State  by 
hereditary  right,  had  grown  into  great  clans. 

100 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

They  grasped  the  reality  of  administrative  power, 
leaving  its  shadow  only  to  the  sovereign,  who, 
cut  off,  on  the  one  hand,  from  all  direct  com- 
munication with  the  people,  was  condemned,  on 
the  other,  to  see  his  authority  abused  for  purposes 
of  oppression  and  extortion.  The  state  of  the 
lower  orders  was  pitiable.  They  were  little  better 
than  serfs.  The  products  of  their  toil  went  almost 
entirely  to  defray  the  extravagant  outlays  of  the 
patrician  clans,  and  if  sometimes  they  rose  in 
abortive  revolt,  their  more  general  resource  was 
to  fly  to  mountain  districts  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  tax-collector.  Permanent  escape  was  im- 
possible, however.  They  were  sought  out,  and 
forcibly  compelled  to  return  to  their  life  of  un- 
rcmunerated  labour.  Prince  Shotoku  saw  that 
the  remedy  for  these  wretched  conditions,  which 
threatened  even  the  stability  of  the  throne,  was  to 
crush  the  power  of  the  patrician  class  and  bring 
the  nation  under  the  direct  sway  of  emperors  gov- 
erning on  constitutional  principles.  He  inculcated 
the  spirit  of  that  most  enlightened  reform,  but  did 
not  live  to  see  its  practical  consummation. 

Within  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  his  death, 
however,  the  last l  of  the  great  office-owning  clans 
was  annihilated,  and  for  the  first  time  in  Japanese 
history  the  Emperor  became  a  real  ruler.  This 
happened  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century. 
History  calls  it  the  "  Taikwa  Reform." 3  A  long 
series  of  changes  were  crowned  by  an  edict  un- 

1  See  Appendix,  note  16.  'See  Appendix,  note  17. 

101 


JAPAN 

precedented  in  Japan.  The  sovereign  addressed 
himself  direct  to  the  people,  and  employed  lan- 
guage evidently  an  echo  of  Prince  Shotoku's 
constitution.  Its  gist  was  that  since  the  faculty 
of  self-government  must  be  acquired  before  at- 
tempting to  govern  others,  and  since  obedience 
could  be  obtained  only  by  one  worthy  to  com- 
mand, the  sovereign  pledged  himself  to  behave 
in  strict  conformity  with  the  principles  of  im- 
perialism, relying  on  the  aid  of  heaven  and  the 
support  of  the  people.  Tenchi,  who  issued  this 
edict,  may  be  called  the  father  of  constitutional 
monarchism  in  Japan.  His  fourth  successor, 
Mommu  (697—708),  inaugurated  his  reign  by  a 
similar  rescript,  promising,  with  the  help  of  his 
ancestors  and  the  gods,  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
his  people.  The  interval  of  forty  years  separating 
Tenchi's  accession  and  Mommu's  death  (668- 
708)  may  be  regarded  as  the  only  period,  in  all 
the  long  history  of  Japan  prior  to  modern  times, 
when  the  sovereign  was  not  divided  from  the 
people  by  nobles  who  usurped  his  authority. 
Mommu  endeavoured  to  invest  the  issue  of  his 
edict  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  but  of  an  es- 
sentially democratic  character.  The  princes  of 
the  blood,  the  great  nobles,  and  the  chief  officials 
were  all  required  to  attend,  and  the  people  were 
invited  en  masse.  Then  a  crier  read  the  edict 
aloud  in  four  parts,  and  at  the  end  of  each  part 
all  present,  high  and  low  alike,  were  invited  to 
signify  their  assent. 

102 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

This  remarkable  chapter  of  Japanese  history 
may  be  broadly  described  as  a  political  revolution 
resulting  from  the  introduction  of  Chinese  civil- 
isation through  the  medium  of  Buddhist  priests, 
just  as  a  similar  revolution  in  recent  times  resulted 
from  the  introduction  of  Western  civilisation 
through  the  medium  of  gunboats.  The  splen- 
dour and  prestige  of  the  Tang  dynasty,  which  in 
the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  had  wrested 
the  sceptre  of  China  from  the  hands  of  the  scarcely 
less  magnificent  Sui  sovereigns,  were  reflected  in 
Japan.  Tenchi  and  Mommu  modelled  their  ad- 
ministration on  the  lines  indicated  in  the  "Golden 
Mirror  "  of  Tatsong,  and  the  grand  capital  estab- 
lished at  Nara  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century  was  an  imitation  of  the  Tang  metropolis 
at  Hsian. 

Another  feature  common  to  the  records  of 
seventh-century  and  nineteenth-century  progress 
was  extraordinary  speed  of  achievement.  Just  as 
forty  years  of  contact  with  Occidental  civilisation 
sufficed  to  metamorphose  Japan  in  modern  time, 
so  a  cycle  of  Chinese  influence  revolutionised  her 
in  ancient  days. 

In  the  era  immediately  prior  to  the  latter 
change,  nothing  was  more  marked  than  the  wide 
interval  separating  the  patrician  and  the  plebeian 
sections  of  the  nation.  The  lower  orders,  as  has 
been  already  stated,  were  reduced  to  a  state  of 
virtual  slavery,  and  the  upper  obeyed  only  the 
law  of  their  own  interests  and  passions.  A  patri- 

103 


JAPAN 

cian  held  himself  defiled  by  mere  contact  with  a 
plebeian,  and  marriages  between  them  were  not 
tolerated.  Great  importance  attached  to  well- 
established  pedigrees.  During  the  lapse  of  ages 
and  in  the  absence  of  any  written  records,  few 
genealogical  trees  could  be  traced  clearly  through 
all  their  ramifications,  and  the  danger  of  admit- 
ting some  strain  of  vulgar  blood  into  a  family 
imparted  special  advantage  to  marriages  between 
children  of  the  same  father  by  different  mothers. 
Confucianism  proved  entirely  powerless  to  check 
that  abuse,  or  to  provide  any  general  corrective 
for  the  relations  between  the  sexes,  which  were 
frequently  subserved  to  degrading  influences. 
Wives  had  now  ceased  to  live  apart  from  their 
husbands,  but  concubinage  was  largely  practised, 
and  marital  and  extra-marital  relations  alike  were 
severed  on  the  slightest  pretext.  A  woman, 
however,  did  not  recover  her  full  freedom  when 
abandoned  by  her  husband  or  protector.  She 
was  still  supposed  to  owe  some  measure  of  fidelity 
to  him,  and  if  she  contracted  a  second  alliance, 
her  new  partner  often  found  himself  exposed  to 
extortionate  demands  from  her  former  mate. 
Another  evil  practice  was  that  powerful  families 
trafficked  in  the  honour  of  an  alliance  with 
them,  first  dictating  a  marriage,  and  then  making 
it  a  pretext  for  levying  large  contributions  on  the 
bride's  parents.  Loss  of  affection  or  inclination 
was  deemed  a  sufficient  reason  for  divorcing  a 
woman,  and  sometimes  mere  suspicion  of  a  wife's 

104 


THE    EARLY    ERAS   OF    HISTORY 

infidelity  induced  a  husband  to  appeal  to  the 
law  for  an  investigation,  which  meant  that  the 
unfortunate  woman  had  to  undergo  the  ordeal 
of  thrusting  her  hand  into  boiling  water  or 
grasping  a  red-hot  axe.  Many  women  con- 
ceived such  a  dread  of  the  married  state  that  they 
deliberately  chose  the  life  of  domestic  servants, 
thus  incurring  the  plebeian  stigma  and  becoming 
ineligible  for  patrician  attentions  in  any  form. 
Even  the  terrible  custom  of/KJRfAr,  or  dying  to 
accompany  a  deceased  chieftain,  had  lost  some- 
thing of  the  discredit  attached  to  it  by  the  ordi- 
nance of  the  enlightened  emperor  Suinin  five 
centuries  previously.  Faithful  vassals  still  took 
their  own  lives  in  order  to  be  buried  near  their 
lord's  tomb,  and  wives  and  concubines  followed 
their  example,  voluntarily  or  on  compulsion. 
Horses  also  were  killed  to  serve  their  masters 
beyond  the  grave,  and  valuables  of  all  kinds  were 
interred  in  sepulchres,  as  had  been  the  habit  from 
time  immemorial.  When  duty  to  the  dead  was 
not  pushed  to  these  extremes,  the  survivors  con- 
sidered it  necessary  at  least  to  cut  their  hair  or  to 
mutilate  their  bodies. 

All  these  abuses  were  strictly  interdicted  in  the 
reformation  foreshadowed  by  Prince  Shotoku's 
adoption  of  Buddhism  and  Confucianism,  and 
embodied  in  a  series  of  legislative  measures  during 
the  period  645  to  708. l  The  nation  suddenly 
sprang  to  a  greatly  higher  level  of  civilisation. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  18. 

105 


JAPAN 

Notably  the  style  of  dwellings  was  altered. 
Architects,  turners,  tile-makers,  decorative  artists, 
and  sculptors  coming  from  China  and  Korea, 
magnificent  temples  were  built,  enshrining 
images  of  high  artistic  beauty,  and  adorned  with 
paintings  and  carvings  which  would  be  worthy 
objects  of  admiration  in  any  age  of  aesthetic 
development.  Rich  nobles,  at  the  same  time, 
began  to  construct  for  themselves1  mansions 
which  already  showed  several  features  destined 
to  permanently  distinguish  Japanese  residences. 
The  processes  of  manufacturing  paper  and  ink,  of 
weaving  carpets  with  wool  or  the  hair  of  animals, 
of  concocting  dyes,  of  preparing  whetstones,  of 
therapeutics,  of  compiling  a  calendar,  and  of  ship- 
building on  greatly  improved  lines, —  all  these, 
learned  from  China,  were  skilfully  applied. 

It  may  be  noted  incidentally  that  the  growth 
of  wealth  resulting  from  this  influx  of  material 
civilisation  gave  additional  emphasis  to  the 
superiority  of  the  Chinese,  for  they  had  to  be 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  various  bureaux  of  the 
Treasury,  there  being  no  Japanese  competent  to 
discharge  such  duties.  Commerce  also  felt  the 
expansive  impulse.  Men  travelled  from  province 
to  province  selling  goods ;  foreign  vessels  fre- 
quented the  ports  ;  a  collector  of  customs  and  a 
superintendent  of  trade  were  appointed,  and  an 
officially  recognised  system  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures was  introduced. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  19. 

1 06 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

Not  less  marked  were  the  changes  of  costume. 
Instead  of  dressing  the  hair  so  as  to  form  a  loop 
hanging  over  each  ear,  men  tied  it  in  a  queue 
on  the  top  of  the  head.  This  novel  fashion  was 
due  to  the  use  of  hats  as  insignia  of  official  ranks. 
There  were  twelve  varieties  of  hat  corresponding 
to  as  many  grades,  and  each  was  tied  on  with 
cord  of  a  distinct  colour,  just  as  the  colour  of  a 
cap-button  now  indicates  official  quality  in 
China.  Wigs  had  hitherto  been  largely  used, 
but  they  were  now  abandoned  except  on  occa- 
sions of  special  ceremonial,  when  they  were  fast- 
ened to  the  hat.  The  introduction  of  the  queue 
seems  to  have  been  responsible  for  the  first  dis- 
play of  foppery  on  the  part  of  men.  It  was 
ornamented  with  gold  in  the  case  of  the  highest 
officials,  with  tiger's  hair  by  men  of  lesser  rank, 
and  with  cock's  feathers  in  a  still  lower  grade. 

The  abolition  of  hereditary  offices  necessitated 
a  thorough  re-organisation  of  the  administrative 
system,  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the 
remodelled  form  remained  permanent  through 
all  ages  and  still  exists  to  a  recognisable  degree. 
For  managing  affairs  in  the  provinces  —  where 
the  great  families  had  gradually  become  auto- 
cratic, not  only  levying  imposts  at  will,  but  also 
appropriating  to  their  own  uses  the  taxes  that 
should  have  gone  to  the  Court  —  local  governors 
and  district  headmen  were  appointed,  and  at  the 
head  of  the  central  government  was  placed  a  de- 
partment of  shrines,  immediately  under  it  being 

107 


JAPAN 

a  cabinet  with  a  bureau  of  councillors,  two  secre- 
tariats, and  finally  eight  departments  of  State.  A 
system  of  civil-service  examination  was  also  inau- 
gurated. Youths  desiring  administrative  posts  had 
to  enter  one  of  the  educational  institutions  then 
founded,  and  subsequently  to  undergo  examina- 
tion, though  this  routine  might  be  departed  from 
in  the  case  of  men  whose  fathers  had  deserved 
conspicuously  well  of  the  country.  The  name 
of  a  man's  office  now  ceasing  to  do  duty  as  a 
patronymic,  the  hats  mentioned  above  became 
the  only  means  of  recognising  rank,  so  that  their 
importance  grew  greater,  and  their  number 
gradually  increased,  first  to  thirteen  and  after- 
wards to  forty-eight.  But  at  that  point  the 
system  ceased  to  be  practicable,  and  certificates 
of  grade  were  substituted,  a  method  still  pursued. 
Great  pains  were  taken  to  effect  a  distinct 
classification  of  the  people,  the  general  divisions 
adopted  being  "  divine "  (Shin-bet  su,  i.  e.  de- 
scended direct  from  the  deities)  ;  "  imperial  " 
(Kwo-betsu\  and  "  alien "  (Ham-betsu]t  distinc- 
tions which  will  be  more  fully  explained  in  a 
future  chapter.  A  still  broader  division  was  that 
of  ryo-min  (noble)  and  sem-min  (ignoble),  the 
former  including  the  Kivo-betsu  and  the  Shin- 
betsu ;  the  latter  the  Ham-betsu  only.  The  con- 
stant tendency  was  to  accentuate  these  distinctions, 
though  it  sometimes  happened  that  men  reduced 
to  a  state  of  indigence  sold  their  family  name  and 
descended  to  the  position  of  servants.  Clandes- 

108 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

tine  intercourse  between  patrician  and  plebeian 
lovers  was  also  not  infrequent,  but  the  law  took 
care  that  the  offspring  of  such  unions  should 
seldom  obtain  admission  to  the  higher  rank.  It 
is  a  curious  fact  that  the  legislators  of  the  time 
never  conceived  the  possibility  of  a  patrician 
lady's  forming  a  liaison  with  a  plebeian :  they 
provided  for  the  contingency  of  a  man's  succumb- 
ing to  the  charms  of  a  plebeian  beauty,  but  they 
made  no  allowance  for  any  such  weakness  on  the 
part  of  a  nobly  born  woman. 

Concerning  the  terms  "noble"  and  "ignoble," 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  former  originally 
included  only  such  persons  as  would  be  called 
"gentlemen"  and  "ladies"  in  Europe  or 
America.  In  addition  to  the  whole  of  the  offi- 
cial and  military  elements,  the  ryo-min  comprised 
many  bread-winners  who,  under  the  more  exclu- 
sive system  of  subsequent  eras,  were  relegated  to 
a  lower  social  status.  The  most  comprehensive 
definition  is  that  only  those  pledged  to  some 
form  of  servitude  stood  in  the  ranks  of  the  sem- 
min,  all  others  being  ryo-min.  There  were  five 
classes  of  sem-min,  the  lowest  being  private  ser- 
vants, and  the  highest,  public  employes.  The 
distinction  of  "military  man"  (samurai  or 
shizoku)  and  "commoner"'  or  "civilian"  (hei- 
min)  did  not  exist  at  the  time  now  under  consid- 
eration. Indeed,  at  this  point  another  resemblance 
is  found  between  the  "  Restoration  "  in  the 
seventh  century  and  that  in  the  nineteenth  ccn- 

109 


JAPAN 

tury;  for  just  as  the  modern  government  signal- 
ised the  fall  of  feudalism  and  the  transfer  of 
administrative  power  to  the  sovereign  by  abolish- 
ing the  samurai's  privilege  of  wearing  two  swords, 
and  thus,  in  effect,  abolishing  the  samurai  him- 
self, so  when  the  Taikwa  Government  put  an  end 
to  the  system  of  hereditary  offices  in  645,  it 
collected  all  the  implements  of  war  from  their 
owners  and  stored  this  great  assemblage  of 
swords,  bows,  and  arrows  in  magazines.  The 
bearer  of  arms  thus  lost  whatever  prestige  had 
previously  attached  to  that  distinction.  But  such 
a  state  of  affairs  could  not  be  permanent  in  a 
country  where  the  control  of  the  indigenous 
inhabitants  still  continued  to  demand  constant 
exhibitions  of  force.  Before  forty  years  had 
elapsed,  another  emperor  (Temmu)  organised  a 
definite  military  establishment  and  inaugurated 
a  course  of  training  in  warlike  exercises ;  and 
shortly  afterwards,  an  empress  (Jito)  introduced 
conscription.  At  first  only  twenty-five  per  cent 
of  the  youths  throughout  the  realm  were  required 
to  serve,  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury the  number  was  increased  to  one  in  every 
three.  All  the  ryo-min  appear  to  have  been  held 
liable  for  this  service.  Thus  a  man  engaged  one 
day  in  hawking  merchandise  or  dyeing  cloth 
might  find  himself,  the  next,  bearing  arms  and 
receiving  military  training.  A  regiment  was 
organised  for  every  five  rural  divisions,  and  from 
among  these  regiments  certain  sections  were 

no 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

selected  to  guard  the  imperial  palace,  while 
others  were  told  off  for  coast  duty,  three  years 
being  the  term  of  service  in  either  case.  Had 
this  system  remained  in  operation,  there  would 
have  been  no  such  thing  as  a  feudal  Japan,  nor 
would  the  profession  of  arms  have  become  the 
special  right  of  a  limited  class.  But  the  course 
of  events  may  be  anticipated  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
before  the  lapse  of  a  century  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  conscription,  military  duties  became 
hereditary,  and  Japanese  society  assumed  a  struc- 
ture which  continued  without  radical  change 
until  the  revolution  of  recent  times. 

It  will  readily  be  conjectured  that,  turning  to 
China  for  models,  Japan  did  not  fail  to  make 
the  family  system  a  fundamental  feature  of  her 
reforms.  A  family  might  consist  of  a  single 
household,  or  it  might  comprise  several  house- 
holds ;  but  every  family,  whatever  its  dimensions, 
had  to  have  one  recognised  head,  to  whom  the 
subordinate  households  were  related  by  blood. 
Thus,  since  the  subordinate  households  generally 
included  wives,  concubines,  children,  and  ser- 
vants, the  head  of  the  whole  family  sometimes 
represented  a  clan  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and 
fifty  persons.  This  position  of  headship  could 
not  be  occupied  by  any  save  a  legitimate  scion, 
but  a  female  was  eligible,  provided  she  had  at- 
tained the  age  of  twenty,  and  was  not  actually  a 
widow,  a  wife,  or  a  concubine.  Remembering 
the  marked  laxity  of  the  marital  relation  prior  to 

in 


JAPAN 

the  era  of  this  new  system,  one  is  astonished  at 
the  courage  with  which  such  sweeping  changes 
were  effected,  and  at  the  complacence  with 
which  they  were  received.  For  whereas  previ- 
ously men  had  been  free  to  adopt  any  rule  of 
succession  they  pleased,  and  the  legitimacy  of  an 
heir  had  scarcely  been  considered,  it  now  became 
necessary  that  the  successor  to  the  headship  of  a 
family  should  be  legitimate  before  everything : 
adoption  being  declared  preferable  to  the  choice 
of  a  bastard.  But  the  higher  the  social  grade  of 
the  family,  the  greater  the  latitude  in  this  respect. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  eligibility  of  an  im- 
perial concubine's  son  was  ever  questioned,  and 
in  the  case  of  a  noble  belonging  to  one  of  the 
three  first  grades,  a  child  born  out  of  wedlock 
might  succeed,  failing  legitimate  sons  or  grand- 
sons. Adoption,  too,  must  be  exercised  within 
the  limits  of  blood  relatives,  any  departure  from 
that  rule  being  criminal. 

Five  families  living  in  the  same  district  were 
combined  into  an  administrative  group,  which 
elected  its  chief  and  delegated  to  him  a  general 
duty  of  supervision.  The  group  (ho}  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  payment  of  its  members'  taxes. 
In  those  days  it  was  not  an  uncommon  incident 
for  a  family  to  abscond  en  masse,  in  the  hope  of 
avoiding  extortionate  imposts.  The  group  had 
to  trace  the  absconders,  and  discharge  their  fiscal 
liabilities  during  their  absence. 

The  marriageable  age  for  youths  was  fifteen,  and 

112 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

for  maidens  thirteen,  but  the  consent  of  parents 
or  grandparents  had  to  be  obtained.  Already  the 
preliminaries  of  wedlock  were  entrusted  to  a  go- 
between,  and  the  degree  of  order  introduced  into 
these  previously  disorderly  connections  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that,  so  soon  as  the  concurrence  of  the 
two  families  had  been  secured  by  the  go-between, 
a  "marriage  director"  was  duly  appointed,  his 
function  being  to  secure  conformity  with  every 
legal  requirement.  A  girl  of  the  upper  classes 
had  to  consult  the  views  of  an  extensive  circle 
of  relatives  —  parents,  grandparents,  uncles,  aunts, 
brothers,  and  parents-in-law  —  but  this  rule  was 
relaxed  in  proportion  as  the  social  grade  descended. 
Etiquette  forbade  that  a  wedding  should  be  cel- 
ebrated during  the  illness  or  imprisonment  of  a 
parent  or  a  grandparent,  and  an  engagement  be- 
came invalid  when  the  nuptial  ceremony  had  been 
capriciously  deferred  for  three  months  by  the 
man  ;  or  when  he  had  absconded  and  remained 
absent  for  a  month  ;  or  when,  having  fallen  into 
pecuniary  distress  in  another  part  of  the  realm, 
be  failed  to  return  within  a  year;  or  when  he 
had  committed  a  serious  crime. 

Concerning  divorce,  a  theme  much  discussed 
by  critics  of  Japan's  ethical  systems,  the  family  of 
a  wife  were  entitled  to  demand  her  freedom  in 
two  cases :  first,  in  the  event  of  deliberate  deser- 
tion, extending  to  three  years  when  there  had 
been  offspring  of  the  marriage,  and  two  years 
where  the  union  had  been  childless ;  secondly,  in 
8  113 


JAPAN 

the  event  of  a  husband's  incurring  pecuniary  ruin 
in  a  distant  place,  and  failing  to  come  home  for 
five  years  if  he  had  left  a  child,  and  for  three  if 
there  was  no  child.  But  against  this  exceedingly 
brief  list  of  a  wife's  rights,  there  is  a  long  cat- 
alogue of  the  husband's.  He  was  entitled  to 
divorce  his  wife  if  she  did  not  bear  him  a  male 
child,  if  her  habits  were  licentious,  if  she  failed 
in  her  duty  to  her  parents-in-law,  if  she  indulged 
a  love  of  gossip,  if  she  committed  a  theft,  if  she 
betrayed  a  jealous  disposition,  or  if  she  suffered 
from  an  obnoxious  disease.  The  more  important 
a  man's  social  position,  the  greater  his  obligation 
to  secure  the  assent  of  his  own  parents  and  his 
wife's  before  putting  her  away,  but  in  the  lowest 
classes  scarcely  any  impediment  offered  to  separa- 
tion. Sentiment,  however,  interposed  a  curious 
veto.  If  a  wife  had  contributed  money  for  the 
funeral  of  a  parent-in-law,  or  if  a  husband  oc- 
cupying a  low  social  grade  at  the  time  of  his 
marriage  had  subsequently  risen  to  a  higher,  or 
if  a  wife  had  no  home  to  which  she  could  retire 
after  separation,  then  divorce  was  held  to  be  in- 
admissible. The  one  redeeming  feature  of  the 
wife's  position  was  that  all  the  property,  whether 
in  money,  chattels,  or  serfs,  brought  with  her 
at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  had  to  be  returned 
on  divorce.  Her  enforced  subservience  to  her 
parents-in-law,  and  her  obligation  to  patiently 
endure  the  presence  of  one  or  more  concubines, 
if  her  husband  so  willed  it,  were  often  cruel  bur- 

114 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

dens  in  her  daily  life.  A  concubine  acquired  by 
this  new  legislation  the  status  of  a  second-grade 
relative,  but  the  system  was  purely  morganatic, 
the  law  peremptorily  refusing  to  recognise  two 
wives. 

The  edicts  of  the  era  embodied  an  excellent 
code  of  ethics.  Such  virtues  were  inculcated  as 
industry,  integrity,  frugality,  simplicity  of  funeral 
rites,  diligent  transaction  of  business  even  during 
periods  of  mourning,  and  the  exclusion  of  merce- 
nary motives  from  marriage  contracts.  Further, 
the  new  democratic  principle  extracted  from  the 
Confucian  cult  —  the  principle  that  the  throne 
must  be  based  on  the  good  will  of  the  nation  at 
large,  and  that  full  consideration  should  be  given 
to  the  views  of  the  lower  orders  —  found  practical 
expression  in  the  erection  of  numerous  petition- 
boxes  wherein  men  were  invited  to  deposit  a 
statement  of  grievances  demanding  redress,  and 
in  the  hanging  of  bells  which  were  to  be  rung 
when  it  was  desired  to  bring  any  trouble  of  a 
pressing  nature  to  official  notice.  Codes  of  laws 
were  also  framed. 

An  interesting  fact  shown  by  this  legislation  is 
that  the  economical  principle  of  a  common  title 
to  the  use  of  land  received  recognition,  practi- 
cally at  all  events,  in  ancient  Japan.  Looking 
as  far  back  as  history  throws  its  light,  it  is  seen 
that  the  Crown's  right  of  eminent  domain  was 
an  established  doctrine,  but  that,  during  the  era 
of  patriarchal  government,  large  tracts  of  land 

"5 


JAPAN 

came  into  the  possession  of  the  great  governing 
families,  and  remained  their  property  until  the 
fall  and  virtual  extermination  of  the  last  of  these 
families  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century. 
The  Emperor  then  becoming,  for  a  time,  the 
repository  of  complete  authority,  resumed  pos- 
session of  all  private  estates,  and  exact  rules  for 
the  distribution  and  control  of  land  were  em- 
bodied in  the  new  codes.  The  basis  of  the 
system  then  adopted  was  the  general  principle 
that  every  unit  of  the  nation  had  a  natural  title 
to  the  usufruct  of  the  soil.  It  was  therefore 
enacted  that  to  all  persons,  from  the  age  of  five 
upwards,  "  sustenance  land  "  should  be  granted  in 
the  proportion  of  two-thirds  of  an  acre  to  each 
male  and  one-third  to  each  female.  These 
grants  were  for  life,  and  the  grantee  was  entitled 
to  let  the  land  for  one  year  at  a  time,  provided 
that,  at  his  death,  it  reverted  to  the  Crown. 
Redistribution  every  sixth  year  was  among  the 
provisions  of  the  code,  but  the  difficulties  of 
carrying  out  the  rule  soon  proved  deterrent. 
Lands  were  also  conferred  in  consideration  of 
rank.  Imperial  princes  of  the  first  class  received 
two  hundred  acres  ;  those  of  the  second  class,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres ;  those  of  the  third,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  acres,  and  those  of  the 
fourth,  one  hundred  acres.  In  the  case  of  the 
ten  grades  into  which  officialdom  had  now  been 
divided,  the  grants  ranged  from  twenty  to  two 
hundred  acres,  and  females  belonging  to  any  of 

116 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

these  grades  received  two-thirds  of  a  male's 
share,  the  consideration  shown  to  them  being 
thus  twice  as  great  as  that  extended  to  women 
of  inferior  position.  Finally,  land  was  given  in 
lieu  of  official  emoluments  ;  the  Prime  Minister's 
salary  being  the  produce  of  one  hundred  acres ; 
that  of  the  second  and  third  Ministers,  seventy 
five  acres  each  ;  and  that  of  other  officials  rang- 
ing from  two  to  fifty  acres.  Land,  indeed,  may 
be  said  to  have  constituted  the  money  of  the 
epoch.  It  was  given  in  lieu  not  only  of  salaries 
but  also  of  allowances,  —  even  post-stations  along 
the  high-roads  being  endowed  with  estates  whose 
produce  they  were  expected  to  employ  in  pro- 
viding horses,  couriers,  and  baggage-carriers  for 
Government  use.  It  need  scarcely  be  added  that 
meritorious  public  services  were  rewarded  with 
estates,  granted  sometimes  in  perpetuity,  some- 
times for  two  generations  only. 

A  special  arrangement  existed  for  encouraging 
sericulture  and  the  lacquer  industry.  Tracts  of 
land  were  assigned  to  families  for  planting  mul- 
berry or  lacquer  trees  in  fixed  quantity,  and  such 
land  might  be  leased  for  any  term  of  years  or 
sold  with  official  permission  ;  neither  did  it  revert 
to  the  Crown  unless  the  family  became  extinct. 
But  any  land  left  uncultivated  for  three  years  was 
regarded  as  forfeited,  and  had  to  be  resumed  or 
re-allotted. 

The  exact  amount  of  taxes  levied  at  various 
eras  in  Japan  has  always  been  difficult  to  asccr- 

117 


JAPAN 

tain,  for  not  only  did  the  method  of  assessment 
vary  in  different  provinces,  but  also  the  legal 
limits  were  seldom  the  real  limits.  In  the 
period  now  under  consideration,  the  records 
show  that,  for  purposes  of  local  administration, 
a  tax  in  kind,  representing  five  per  cent  of  the 
gross  produce  of  the  land,  was  levied,  and  that 
the  expenses  of  the  central  government  were 
defrayed  by  means  of  miscellaneous  imposts  on 
all  the  principal  staples  of  production,  as  silk, 
fish,  cloth,  etc.,  and  by  a  corvee  of  thirty  days' 
work  annually  from  every  male  between  the  ages 
of  twenty-one  and  sixty-six  years,  and  fifteen  days 
from  every  minor.  An  adult's  labour  might  be 
commuted  by  paying  three  pieces  of  hempen 
cloth.  These  labourers  were  not  hardly  treated 
in  the  comparatively  rare  cases  where  they  chose 
to  work  rather  than  to  commute.  During  the 
dog  days,  they  were  entitled  to  rest  from  noon 
to  four  p.  M.,  and  night  work  was  not  required. 
Rations  were  provided,  and  in  wet  weather  they 
were  not  expected  to  work  out  of  doors.  If  a 
man  fell  ill  while  on  corvee,  due  provision  was 
made  for  his  maintenance,  and  in  case  of  death 
he  was  coffined  at  official  expense,  and  the  body 
was  either  given  up  to  any  relative  or  friend  on 
application,  or  cremated  and  the  ashes  buried  by 
the  wayside.  There  were,  of  course,  various  ex- 
emptions from  forced  labour.  Females  or  per- 
sons suffering  from  illness  or  deformity  were 
invariably  excused,  and  holders  of  official  rank 

II* 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF     HISTORY 

obtained  exemption,  not  only  for  themselves,  but 
also  for  their  fathers  and  sons,  and  even  for  their 
grandfathers,  brothers,  and  grandsons,  in  the 
highest  grade. 

These  imposts  were  evidently  onerous.  The 
corvee  alone,  representing  one-twelfth  of  a  man's 
yearly  labour,  would  have  been  a  heavy  burden 
without  the  addition  of  five  per  cent  of  the  gross 
produce  of  the  land  and  a  contribution  of  general 
staples  equal,  probably,  to  at  least  two  or  three 
per  cent  more.  Mercy  was  shown,  however,  in 
the  event  of  defective  crops.  The  remissions  on 
that  account  were  regulated  by  a  schedule :  the 
land  tax  being  remitted  if  the  shortage  amounted 
to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  average  yield,  the  mis- 
cellaneous taxes  if  the  shortage  reached  seventy 
per  cent,  and  the  corvee  when  there  was  a  loss 
of  eighty  per  cent.  The  five-families  group 
spoken  of  above  was  responsible  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  all  maintenance  estates.  Thus,  if  a  man 
fled  from  the  pursuit  of  justice  or  the  burden  of 
his  taxes,  the  group  to  which  he  belonged  took 
care  of  the  land  for  three  years  and  discharged 
his  fiscal  liabilities,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the 
land  reverted  to  the  State  in  the  event  of  his 
continued  absence. 

The  Codes  contained  provisions  with  regard 
to  inheritance  also.  The  system  was  regulated 
by  strict  rules  of  descent,  and  not  only  land,  but 
also  serfs,  houses,  and  personal  property  were  in- 
cluded in  the  estate.  The  eldest  son,  his  mother, 

119 


JAPAN 

and  his  step-mother  received  two  parts  each  ;  the 
younger  sons,  one  part  each  ;  the  daughters  and 
the  concubines,  half  of  a  part  each.  Here,  too, 
the  general  principle  applicable  to  woman's  rights 
was  observed,  namely,  that  the  female  ranked  as 
a  minor,  or  as  one  half  of  an  adult  male.  A 
mother's  rights,  however,  did  not  descend  to  her 
daughter.  Thus,  whereas  a  son's  children  of 
either  sex  represented  their  father  in  the  division 
of  the  family  estate,  a  daughter's  children  did 
not  represent  their  mother.  On  the  other  hand, 
property  belonging  to  a  woman  at  the  time  of 
her  marriage  was  not  necessarily  absorbed  into 
the  family  estate  of  her  husband.  Neither  did 
these  rules  apply  to  land  granted  for  public  ser- 
vices. Such  land  had  to  be  divided  equally  among 
all  the  children,  male  and  female  alike.  Other 
rules  existed,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  show 
the  general  character  of  the  law  of  inheritance. 

Wills  were  not  considered  in  the  code  ;  they 
became  almost  superfluous  instruments  in  the  face 
of  such  precise  legal  provisions.  It  does  not 
follow,  however,  that  estates  were  invariably  di- 
vided in  the  manner  here  indicated,  or  that  the 
law  interdicted  all  liberty  of  action  in  such  mat- 
ters. If  the  members  of  a  family  agreed  to  live 
together  and  have  everything  in  common,  they 
were  exempted  from  the  obligation  of  observing 
the  rules  of  inheritance ;  and,  further,  a  parent 
was  entitled,  during  his  lifetime,  to  distribute 
the  property  among  his  children  in  accordance 

1 20 


=  i 

V1    J* 

21 


£  1 

E  o 

«o  2 

-  ^ 


THE     EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

with  the  dictates  of  his  own  judgment.  He  also 
possessed  the  power  of  expelling  a  profligate  son 
from  the  paternal  home,  and  such  expulsion 
carried  with  it  disinheritance. 

The  "  serfs,"  to  whom  several  allusions  have 
already  been  made,  had  certain  exceptional  rights. 
A  public  serf  was  entitled  to  receive  from  the 
State  as  much  maintenance  land  as  a  free-man, 
and  a  private  serf  received  one-third  of  that 
amount.  But  a  difference  existed  in  the  nature 
of  the  tenure  ;  for  whereas  a  free- man  might  let 
or  even  sell  his  land  with  official  consent,  a  serf 
was  obliged  to  cultivate  it  himself.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  serf  paid  no  taxes  and  enjoyed  exemp- 
tion from  forced  labour. 

The  Government  exercised  no  scrutiny  into 
any  transactions  of  sale  unless  lands  or  serfs  were 
concerned.  But  it  endeavoured  to  control  trans- 
actions of  borrowing.  Priests  and  nuns  were 
forbidden  to  lend  money  or  goods  on  interest ; 
officials  to  borrow  from  any  one  in  their  own 
department ;  and  imperial  relatives,  of  or  above 
the  fifth  grade,  to  make  loans  in  the  districts  of 
their  residence.  Interest  was  to  be  collected 
every  60  days,  the  rate  not  exceeding  one-eighth 
of  the  principal  ;  but  after  480  days  had  elapsed, 
the  interest  might  become  cent  per  cent,  though 
no  accumulation  exceeding  twice  the  principal 
was  recognised.  Loans  of  rice  and  millet  must 
not  run  for  more  than  a  year.  If,  at  the  expira- 
tion of  that  time,  the  debtor  could  not  discharge 

121 


JAPAN 

his  liability,  his  property  might  be  sold,  and  its 
proceeds  supplemented  by  his  own  serfdom,  if 
necessary.  Official  attempts  were  often  made  to 
prevent  the  mortgaging  of  land,  but  permanent 
success  never  attended  them. 

The  people's  chief  occupation  in  those  days 
was  agriculture.  It  cannot  be  said,  however, 
that  the  choice  of  farming  pursuits  was  specially 
suggested  by  the  nation's  aptitudes.  The  genius 
of  the  Japanese  seems  to  find  most  congenial 
exercise  in  all  manufacturing  efforts  that  demand 
skill  of  hand  and  delicacy  of  artistic  taste.  But 
as  yet  no  considerable  demand  for  the  products 
of  such  skill  had  arisen,  whereas  the  cultivation 
or  reclamation  of  lands  gradually  freed  from  the 
occupation  of  the  stubborn  autochthons,  being 
always  an  urgent  necessity,  was  correspondingly 
encouraged  by  the  Government.  Rice  was  the 
chief  staple  of  production,  and  the  methods  of 
the  rice-farmer  differed  little  from  those  now  in 
vogue,  though  not  until  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century  did  the  practice  commence  of  hanging 
the  sheaves  on  wooden  frames  to  dry.  Hitherto 
they  had  been  strewn  on  the  ground  during  the 
process,  the  fate  of  the  grain  thus  depending 
wholly  on  the  weather's  caprices.  Rice  is  not  a 
robust  cereal.  Deficiency  of  rain  in  June,  a  low 
range  of  thermometer  in  July  and  August,  storms 
in  September,  —  any  one  of  these  common  inci- 
dents largely  affects  the  yield.  After  the  intro- 
duction of  Buddhism,  when  fish  and  flesh  could 

122 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

not  be  eaten  without  violating  the  sanctity  of  life, 
inclement  seasons  must  often  have  compelled  men 
to  choose  between  the  laws  of  the  creed  and  the 
dictates  of  nature.  It  was  appropriate  that  the 
female  rulers  who  patronised  Buddhism  so  pas- 
sionately, should  make  special  efforts  to  save  their 
subjects  from  the  temptation  of  the  alternative ; 
and  accordingly  the  Empresses  Jito  (690-696)  and 
Gensho  (715—725)  took  steps  to  encourage  the 
cultivation  of  barley,  Indian  corn,  wheat,  sesamum, 
turnips,  peaches,  oranges,  and  chestnuts.  Tea, 
buckwheat  and  beans  were  added  to  this  list 
during  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century,  and  it 
is  thus  seen  that  Japan  possessed  at  an  early  date 
all  her  staple  bread-stuffs,  except  the  sweet  potato 
and  the  pear.  The  Empresses  mentioned  above 
and  the  Emperors  of  their  era  devised  several 
measures  to  encourage  agriculture, — such  as  grant- 
ing free  tenure  of  waste  land  or  bestowing  rewards 
on  its  cultivators,  making  loans  of  money  for 
works  of  irrigation,  and  munificently  recognising 
the  services  of  officials  in  provinces  where  farming 
flourished,  or  punishing  them  when  it  fell  into 
neglect,  —  and  adopted  precautions  against  famine 
by  requiring  every  farmer  to  store  a  certain  quan- 
tity of  millet  annually.  In  all  ages  the  Japanese 
Court  showed  itself  keenly  solicitous  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people,  and  its  solicitude  was  fully 
shared  by  its  proteges,  the  Buddhist  priests.  If  at 
one  time  an  Emperor  Tenchi  (668-671)  remitted 
all  taxes  for  three  years,  until  signs  of  returning 

123 


JAPAN 

prosperity  were  detected,  or  an  imperial  prince 
(Yoshimune,  803)  invented  the  water-wheel,  at 
another  Buddhist  prelates  of  the  highest  rank 
travelled  about  the  country,  and  showed  the 
people  how  to  make  roads,  build  bridges,  con- 
struct reservoirs,  and  dredge  rivers.  Stud  farms 
and  cattle  pastures  were  among  the  institutions 
of  the  era,  so  that,  on  the  whole,  agriculture  must 
be  said  to  have  reached  a  tolerably  high  standard. 
But  beyond  doubt  the  most  noteworthy  devel- 
opment of  all  took  place  in  the  domain  of  art. 
The  student  is  here  confronted  by  one  of  the 
strangest  facts  in  Japan's  story.  There  are  ample 
reasons  for  concluding  that  when  Buddhism  was 
introduced  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century, 
both  pictorial  art  and  applied  art  were  at  an  alto- 
gether rudimentary  stage  in  Japan.  There  was 
considerable  skill  in  the  casting,  chiselling,  and 
general  manipulation  of  metals  for  the  purpose 
of  decorating  weapons  of  war  and  horse-trappings, 
or  manufacturing  articles  of  personal  adornment, 
but  artistic  sculpture  and  painting  were  virtually 
unknown.  Yet,  before  the  lapse  of  a  hundred 
years,  both  had  been  carried  to  a  high  standard 
of  excellence,  sculpture  specially  reaching  a  point 
never  subsequently  surpassed,  —  a  point  which, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  should  have  marked 
the  zenith  of  a  long  orbit  of  evolution.  It  is 
customary  to  dismiss  this  enigma  by  attributing 
the  best  achievements  of  the  time  entirely  to 
Korean  and  Chinese  immigrants,  and  certainly 

124 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

many  artists  from  the  neighbouring  empires 
crossed  to  Japan  at  that  era.1  But  there  are 
almost  insuperable  obstacles  to  complete  accept- 
ance of  such  a  theory.  The  subject  will  be  re- 
ferred to  in  another  place.  Here  it  must  be 
dismissed  by  noting  the  extraordinary  impulse  of 
progress  that  gave  to  Japan,  in  a  brief  space  of 
time,  sculptors  of  noble  images,  architects  of  im- 
posing edifices,  and  painters  of  grand  religious 
pictures.  Lacquerers  might  be  added  to  the  cate- 
gory ;  but  the  processes  of  lacquer  manufacture 
are  said  to  have  been  known  in  Japan  as  far  back 
as  the  third  century  before  Christ,  and  it  is  pos- 
sible that  before  the  Emperor  Kotoku  (645—654) 
ordered  his  coffin  and  his  crown  to  be  lacquered, 
fine  examples  of  that  kind  of  work  may  have 
been  produced.  There  is  no  guide  here.  But 
it  is  known  that,  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century,  lacquer  was  so  highly  prized  that  lac- 
quered articles  were  received  in  payment  of  taxes, 
and  also  that,  at  about  the  same  epoch,  red 
lacquer,  five-coloured  lacquer,  aventurine  lacquer, 
and  lacquer  inlaid  with  mother-of-pearl  were 
produced. 

In  the  absence  of  any  form  of  literature  the 
Japanese  people  remained  entirely  without  intel- 
lectual education  during  the  first  thousand  years 
of  their  existence  as  a  nation.  That  is  their 
own  account  of  themselves,  and  there  are  no  suf- 
ficient grounds  for  a  different  version,  difficult  as 

1  See  Appendix,  note  20. 

125 


JAPAN 

it  is  to  believe  that  they  should  have  derived  so 
little  advantage  from  the  neighbourhood  of  a 
people  like  the  Chinese,  whose  literary  talents 
were  already  well  developed  when  the  earliest 
Japanese  colonists  crossed  from  the  continent. 
The  coming  of  two  Korean  literati  to  the  Court 
of  the  Emperor  Ojin  at  the  close  of  the  third 
century  of  the  Christian  era  is  regarded  as  the 
event  that  inaugurated  the  study  of  books  in 
Japan.  These  two  men  were  naturalised,  and 
having  received  official  recognition  as  instructors, 
settled,  one  in  the  province  of  Yamato,  the  other 
in  that  of  Kawachi,  and  there  founded,  respec- 
tively, the  families  of  Bunshi  and  Shishi,  whose 
scions,  during  several  generations,  enjoyed  a  mo- 
nopoly of  literary  teaching.  Little  is  known  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  instruction  imparted  by 
them,  but  it  was  doubtless  confined  to  the  ideo- 
graphs and  to  the  exposition  of  some  elementary 
Chinese  works.  Generally,  however,  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  Middle  Kingdom  then  began  to 
unfold  its  pages,  and  before  the  close  of  the  fifth 
century  a  tolerably  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  Chinese  sages'  writings  had  been  acquired  by 
the  Court  and  by  the  heads  of  the  Government, 
though  the  great  mass  of  the  people  still  re- 
mained in  profound  ignorance.  Thenceforth  a 
constant  ingress  of  literati  took  place  from  the 
neighbouring  continent,  especially  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Buddhism,  and,  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, the  medical  science  of  the  Chinese,  their 

126 


THE    EARLY    ERAS    OF    HISTORY 

processes  of  divination  and  their  methods  of 
almanac-compiling,  constituted  new  inducements 
to  literary  studies.  But  such  a  thing  as  a 
school  did  not  exist  until  the  time  of  the  Empe- 
ror Tenchi  (668-671),  when  the  first  institution 
of  the  kind  was  opened  in  the  capital,  to  be 
followed,  ten  years  later,  by  a  university  and  by 
a  few  provincial  seminaries.  The  curriculum  of 
this  university  represents  the  ideal  of  literary 
attainment  in  its  era.  There  were  "  four  paths  " 
of  essential  learning  —  the  Chinese  classics,  bi- 
ographies, law  and  mathematics.  Caligraphy 
and  music  were  taught  independently.  The 
"classics"  were  divided  into  three  sections:  the 
first,  or  "major  classic,"  consisting  of  the  Book 
of  Etiquette  and  the  Biographies ;  the  second, 
or  "  middle  classic,"  comprising  the  Book  of 
Poetry  and  two  Books  of  Etiquette;  and  the 
third,  or  "  minor  classic,"  including  the  Book 
of  Changes  and  the  Maxims.  These  were  the 
bases  of  the  regular  course  of  lectures,  but 
students  of  literature  were  required  to  study  also 
the  Classic  of  Filial  Piety  and  the  Analects  of 
Confucius.  It  will  be  perceived  that  Buddhism 
had  no  place  in  this  sphere  of  study.  Yet,  at  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century,  when  the  university 
had  four  hundred  and  thirty  students,  and  when 
it  represented  the  only  high  educational  institu- 
tion in  the  Empire,  Buddhism  as  a  religion  had 
already  absorbed  the  attention  of  all  the  nation's 
leaders.  It  is,  indeed,  a  remarkable  fact  of 

127 


JAPAN 

Japanese  history  that  religion  was  thus  excluded 
from  the  range  of  education.  Services  were  per- 
formed at  the  university  and  at  the  schools  in 
honour  of  ancient  men  of  erudition,  and  Confu- 
cius was  deified  under  the  title  of  Bunsen-o ;  but 
while  sovereign,  princes,  and  nobles  were  pos- 
sessed by  passionate  zeal  for  the  propagandism  of 
Buddha's  creed,  and  were  impoverishing  them- 
selves and  the  nation  to  build  magnificent  temples 
and  furnish  them  with  thousands  of  costly  images 
and  quantities  of  gorgeous  paraphernalia,  they 
were  equally  persistent  in  telling  the  people  that 
filial  piety,  as  exemplified  in  the  Chinese  records, 
should  be  the  basis  of  all  action,1  and  that  the 
whole  code  of  every-day  ethics  was  comprised  in 
the  teachings  of  Confucius  and  Mencius.  Per- 
haps if  Buddhism  had  possessed  a  literature  of  its 
own,  the  field  might  not  have  been  exclusively 
occupied  by  the  Chinese  classics.  But  Buddhism 
has  no  literature,  or  to  speak  more  accurately,  no 
literature  intelligible  to  laymen.  Its  scriptures 
are  couched  in  language  which  specialists  only 
can  understand,  and  by  sermons  and  oral  teaching 
alone  are  its  precepts  communicable  to  the  pub- 
lic. Shinto,  on  the  other  hand,  has  no  code  of 
morals  at  all.  Thus  Confucianism  presented 
itself  as  the  sole  working  system  of  ethics  avail- 
able for  educational  purposes  in  ancient  Japan. 

It    is    easy    to    appreciate   what   a    perplexing 
problem    presented    itself  to  Japanese  publicists 

1  See  Appendix,  note  2 1 . 

128 


THE  EARLY  ERAS  OF  HISTORY 
and  educationalists  in  the  eighth  century.  The 
foundations  of  the  national  polity  rested  on  the 
Shinto  tenets  that  the  sovereign  was  the  son  of 
heaven,  that  his  intervention  with  the  gods  was 
essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  people,  and  that 
every  unit  of  the  nation  must  look  up  to  him 
with  the  profoundest  veneration.  Confucian 
ethics,  as  expounded  by  Mencius,  taught  that 
the  sovereign's  title  to  rule  rested  entirely  on  his 
qualities  as  a  ruler ;  that  the  people's  welfare 
took  precedence  of  the  monarch's  prerogatives, 
and  that  filial  piety  was  the  highest  of  all  virtues. 
Buddhism  placed  at  the  head  of  its  scripture  the 
instability  of  everything  human  ;  compared  each 
series  of  worldly  events,  however  great  the  actors, 
however  large  the  issues,  to  a  track  left  by  a  ship 
upon  the  wide  ocean,  and  educated  a  pessimistic 
mood  of  indifference  to  sovereign  and  parent 
alike.  Can  anything  less  consistent  be  conceived 
than  the  conduct  of  a  government  which  em- 
ployed all  its  influence  to  popularise  the  religion 
of  Buddha,  which  appealed  to  Shintti  shrines  for 
heavenly  guidance  in  every  administrative  per- 
plexity, and  which  adopted  Confucianism  as  an 
ethical  code  in  the  education  of  youth  ?  The 
difficulty,  in  the  case  of  Buddhism  and  Shinto, 
was  to  some  extent  overcome,  as  already  shown, 
by  a  clever  adjustment  which  recognised  incarna- 
tions of  Buddha  in  the  principal  Shinto  deities. 
But  it  was  not  overcome  in  the  case  of  the 
Confucian  philosophy,  nor  is  there  any  room 
9 


JAPAN 

to  doubt  that  the  troubles  which  beat  against 
the  Throne,  and  nearly  overthrew  it,  from  the 
eighth  century  to  the  nineteenth,  were  in  some 
degree  the  outcome  of  ideas  derived  from  the 
Chinese  Classics. 


130 


Chapter  V 


THE  JAPANESE  IN  THE 
NARA  EPOCH 


1 


restoration  of  the  administrative 
power  to  the  Emperor  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventh  century,  which  was 
marked  by  the  great  legislative  meas- 
ures already  spoken  of  and  by  the  re-modelling 
of  the  government  on  Chinese  bureaucratic  lines, 
prefaced  a  period  generally  known  as  the  "  Nara, 
or  Heijo,  epoch"  (709-784),  because  the  town 
of  Nara,  then  chosen  as  the  imperial  capital,  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  city  to  hold  that 
rank  independently  of  changes  of  sovereign. 
Hitherto  it  had  been  the  custom  for  the  Emperor 
and  the  heir  apparent  to  reside  in  different  places, 
and  of  course  there  grew  up  about  the  palace  of 
the  prince  material  interests  and  moral  associa- 
tions opposed  to  a  change  of  habitation.  Hence 
on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  he  usually  trans- 
ferred the  capital  of  the  empire  from  the  place 
occupied  by  his  predecessor  to  the  site  of  his 
own  palace.  In  addition  to  this  source  of  fre- 
quent change,  it  happened  occasionally  that  the 
residence  of  the  Imperial  Court,  and  therefore 


JAPAN 

the  capital  of  the  empire,  was  moved  from  one 
place  to  another  twice  or  even  thrice  during  the 
same  reign,  the  only  limit  set  to  all  these  shift- 
ings  being  that  the  five  adjacent  provinces 
occupying  the  waist  of  the  main  island,  and 
known  as  "  Gokinai,"  were  regarded  as  possess- 
ing some  prescriptive  title  to  contain  the  seat  of 
government,  Yamato  being  especially  honoured 
in  that  respect.  A  long  list  might  be  compiled 
of  places  distinguished  by  imperial  residence 
during  the  early  centuries,  notable  among  them 
being  Kashiwara,  the  capital  of  the  Emperor 
Jimmu ;  Naniwa  (now  Osaka),  that  of  the 
Emperor  Nintoku  ;  Otsu,  that  of  the  Emperor 
Tenchi ;  and  Fujiwara,  that  of  the  Emperor 
Temmu.  It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  in 
those  ages  of  comparative  simplicity  and  frugal- 
ity, the  seat  of  government  was  not  invested  with 
attributes  of  pomp  and  grandeur  such  as  the 
haughtier  conceptions  of  later  generations  pre- 
scribed. The  sovereign's  mode  of  life  differed 
little  from  that  of  his  subjects,  and  the  transfer 
of  his  residence  from  place  to  place  involved  no 
costly  or  disturbing  effect.  But  as  civilisation 
progressed,  as  the  population  grew,  as  the  busi- 
ness of  administration  became  more  complicated, 
as  increasing  intercourse  with  China  furnished 
new  standards  for  measuring  the  interval  between 
ruler  and  ruled,  and,  above  all,  as  class  distinc- 
tions acquired  emphasis,  the  character  of  the 
palace  assumed  magnificence  proportionate  to 

13?. 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

the  imperial  ceremonies  and  national  receptions 
that  had  to  be  held  there.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  century,  this  development  had 
reached  a  stage  which  necessitated  a  permanent 
capital,  and  Nara,  thenceforth  called  Heijo  (the 
castle  of  peace),  was  chosen. 

The  capital  established  there  was  on  a  scale  of 
unprecedented  size  and  splendour,  and  a  lady's 
name  —  that  of  the  Empress  Gemmiyo  —  is  fitly 
associated  with  this  tribute  to  outward  appear- 
ances. The  plan  of  the  city  was  taken  from 
that  of  the  Chinese  metropolis.  There  were 
nine  gates  and  nine  avenues.  The  palace  stood 
in  the  northern  section  and  was  approached  from 
the  south  by  an  avenue,  broad  and  perfectly 
straight,  which  divided  the  city  into  two  exactly 
equal  halves,  the  "  left  metropolis "  and  the 
"  right  metropolis."  All  the  other  streets  ran 
in  perfect  parallelism  with  this  main  avenue,  or 
at  right  angles  to  it.1  Seven  sovereigns  reigned 
in  succession  at  Nara.  Some  partial  attempts  were 
made  from  time  to  time  to  revive  the  old  custom 
of  changing  the  Court's  residence  on  a  change  of 
emperor,  but  the  unprecedentedly  grand  dimen- 
sions which  Nara  had  quickly  assumed,  and  the 
group  of  magnificent  temples  that  had  sprung  up 
there  in  a  brief  period,  constituted  a  metropolitan 
title  which  could  not  be  ignored. 

The  Nara  epoch  owes  its  prominent  place 
in  history  chiefly  to  the  extraordinary  zeal 

1  See  Appendix,  note  22. 

'33 


JAPAN 

shown  by  the  Court  and  the  great  nobles  in  pro- 
moting the  spread  of  Buddhism.  During  the 
seventy-five  years  comprised  in  the  epoch,  no 
less  than  seven  of  the  grandest  temples  ever  seen 
in  Japan  were  erected  ;  a  multitude  of  idols  were 
cast,  among  them  a  gigantic  Daibutsu;  colossal 
bells  were  founded,  and  all  the  best  artists  and 
artisans  of  the  time  devoted  their  services  to 
these  costly  works.  The  mania  reached  its 
zenith  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Shomu 
(724—749),  whose  religious  zeal  was  supple- 
mented by  a  love  of  pomp  that  led  him  to  lavish 
great  sums  on  rich  costumes,  expensive  sports, 
and  handsome  edifices,  and  by  superstition  so 
profound  that  whenever  any  natural  calamity  or 
abnormal  phenomenon  occurred,  he  caused  reli- 
gious services  to  be  performed  at  heavy  cost.  In 
addition  to  the  large  demands  of  the  central 
treasury,  salaries  and  emoluments  for  the  leading 
officials  were  assessed  on  a  liberal  scale ;  the 
Prime  Minister's  pay  being  equal  to  the  earning 
capacities  of  three  thousand  families,  that  of  the 
second  Minister  to  the  earnings  of  two  thousand 
families,  and  so  on  in  a  descending  rate. 

The  agricultural  classes,  who  were  the  chief 
tax-payers,  began  to  show  themselves  unequal  to 
this  strain.  It  was  also  appreciated  that  the  theory 
of  State  ownership  of  land,  applied  according  to 
the  provisions  of  the  Taikiva  and  Taiho  legislation, 
produced  a  demoralising  effect  upon  the  farmer, 
since  he  did  not  care  to  improve  land  which  might 

134 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

be  transferred  to  some  one  else  in  six  years,  and 
was  at  best  secure  for  only  one  generation.  The 
Government,  therefore,  began  to  recognise  the 
principle  of  private  ownership,  and  also  to  lend 
to  agriculturists  in  spring  such  funds  or  articles 
as  were  required  for  the  cultivation  of  their  farms. 
In  fact,  the  policy  pursued  by  the  State  was  a 
curious  mixture  of  desire  to  reform  and  inability 
to  retrench.  Resolute  efforts  were  made,  for 
example,  to  improve  means  of  communication 
by  constructing  roads  and  organising  post-stations  ; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  officially  guarded  fences 
and  barriers  were  established  at  commanding 
points,  the  necessity  of  fixing  the  tax-payer  im- 
movably in  one  place  being  considered  more 
important  than  the  expediency  of  bringing  new 
markets  within  reach  of  his  produce.  It  was  in 
the  reign  of  this  same  Emperor  (Shomu)  that  men 
witnessed  the  spectacle  of  the  great  Buddhist  pre- 
late Giyogi  travelling  about  the  country,  attended 
by  a  large  body  of  priests  and  acolytes,  who,  under 
his  direction,  began  the  building  of  bridges,  the 
making  of  roads,  the  digging  of  canals  and  reser- 
voirs, the  improvement  of  harbours  and  the  erec- 
tion of  embankments  in  various  places  where 
special  engineering  skill  was  needed.  Inspired 
by  such  an  example,  the  people  flocked  from  all 
sides  to  complete  these  works,  and  the  Govern- 
ment showed  its  appreciation  of  Giyogi's  labours 
by  redoubling  its  patronage  of  his  creed. 

The  lower  orders  did  not  derive  much  benefit 

J35 


JAPAN 

from  these  improved  facilities  of  communication. 
Government  officials  alone  were  allowed  to  use 
the  horses  kept  at  the  post-stations  and  to  demand 
a  night's  board  and  lodging    in    the  houses  of 
wealthy    persons    en   route.      Common    folk    had 
still  to  carry  their  food  with  them  when  they 
made   journeys,   and    to   cook   it   wherever  they 
might.     In  recognition  of  that  necessity,  it  be- 
came habitual  for  a  man's  friends  to  present  to 
him  a  little   bag  containing  two  or   three  flints 
and  steels  when  he  contemplated  a  journey.      In 
exceptionally  favourable  conditions  the  wayfarer 
found  shelter  for  the  night  under  some  friendly 
or  charitable  roof,  but  in  general  he  bivouacked 
at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  or,  if  he  was  a  man  of  rank 
travelling  with  a  retinue,  his  attendants  constructed 
a  hut  for  his  accommodation.1     Death  from  star- 
vation on  a  journey  was  a  not  infrequent  occur- 
rence.    To  such  a  fate  labourers  especially  were 
exposed  who  had  been  summoned  to  some  remote 
place  on  corvee :  they  perished  on  their  way  home. 
The    humane    Empresses   Gemmyo  and  Gensho 
(708—723)   sought  to  abate  these  evils  by  estab- 
lishing stores  of  grain  at  intervals  along  the  prin- 
cipal highways,  and  by  requiring  wealthy  people 
in  the  provinces  to  make  arrangements  for  selling 
rice  to  travellers.     A  few  years  subsequently,  an 
edict,  issued  at  the  suggestion  of  a  Buddhist  priest, 
required  that  fruit-trees  should  be  planted  on  both 
sides  of  the  main  road  in  the  five  metropolitan 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  23. 

136 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

provinces,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
noble  rows  of  pines  lining  some  of  the  public 
avenues  of  Japan  were  a  later  outcome  of  the 
custom  thus  inaugurated  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century. 

Architectural  improvement  was  another  con- 
spicuous feature  of  the  Nara  epoch,  and,  like 
most  incidents  of  Japanese  progress,  it  owed 
much  to  official  influence.  A  tiled  roof  seems 
to  have  been  the  chief  ambition  in  the  early 
stage  of  development,  but  the  first  attempt  to 
construct  one  for  the  palace  of  the  Empress 
Saimei  (655—661)  proved  a  failure,  and  it  was  not 
till  the  time  of  her  successor,  the  Empress  Jito, 
that  the  Government  found  itself  able  to  issue 
an  order  for  the  tiling  of  all  the  State  offices. 
There  is  difficulty  in  believing  that  during  an 
era  when  applied  art  made  such  remarkable 
strides  as  it  did  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century,  the  bulk  of  the  people  were  content  to 
inhabit  rudely  built  hovels  with  thatched  or 
shingled  roofs,  and  that  even  the  imperial  princes 
lived  in  houses  of  timber  from  which  the  bark 
had  not  been  removed.  It  is  true  that  to  be 
a  prince  in  those  days  did  not  necessarily  imply 
the  possession  of  wealth  or  even  of  a  moderate 
competence,  for  sometimes  the  sovereign  had  to 
make  special  allowances  of  rice  and  salt  to  his 
relatives  to  save  them  from  absolute  want.  But  the 
opulent  as  well  as  the  indigent  were  alike  satisfied 
with  dwellings  of  the  lowliest  character  until  the 


JAPAN 

Nara  epoch,  when  a  new  conception  of  the 
proper  attributes  of  an  empire's  capital  presented 
itself  to  Shomu's  privy  councillors.  They 
addressed  to  the  Throne  a  memorial  insisting 
that  the  nation  needed  a  metropolis  worthy  of 
the  sovereign's  residence  and  of  the  receptions 
his  Majesty  had  to  give  to  foreign  embassies,  and 
they  argued  that  though  houses  with  roofs  of 
thatch  and  shingle  had  the  sanction  of  ancient 
custom,  such  a  method  of  construction  could  not 
be  reconciled  with  any  principles  of  sound  econ- 
omy. The  result  of  these  representations  was  an 
edict  ordering  that  the  houses  of  all  officials  of 
the  central  government  from  the  fifth  grade  of 
rank  upwards,  as  well  as  those  of  all  wealthy 
commoners,  must  be  tiled  and  painted  red  as 
expeditiously  as  possible,  and  soon  afterwards  the 
system  was  extended  to  the  provinces.  To  esti- 
mate the  significance  of  such  an  edict  it  has  to 
be  remembered  that  a  change  of  generation 
usually  meant  the  construction  of  a  new  house  in 
that  era.  The  religious  prejudice  against  pollu- 
tion was  so  strong  that  a  house  where  a  death 
had  taken  place  was  considered  unfit  for  further 
occupation,  and  was  either  pulled  down  and  re- 
built or  abandoned  altogether.  The  edict, 
therefore,  had  an  immediately  practical  interest 
for  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  As  to  the 
seemingly  capricious  order  about  red  paint,  its 
evident  purpose  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  use  of 
timber  carrying  the  bark,  and  of  course  the 

138 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

choice  of  red  was  dictated  by  an  instinctive 
knowledge  of  the  law  of  complementary  colours. 
The  beautiful  harmonies  commonly  seen  in 
Japan  between  rich  vermilion  pagodas,  or  deep- 
red  columns  of  temples,  and  their  environment 
of  green  woods,  had  its  origin  in  the  desire  to 
make  religious  edifices  an  object  lesson  to  archi- 
tects of  private  residences.  But  the  project 
failed  signally.  Rough  timbers,  indeed,  soon 
ceased  to  be  used  for  building  the  houses  of  the 
upper  classes,  but  no  one  could  ever  be  induced 
to  have  his  private  residence  of  the  prescribed 
tint.  Red,  in  short,  came  to  be  regarded  as 
a  religious  colour,  and  that  fact  alone  would 
have  sufficed  to  prevent  its  employment  by  lay 
architects,  for  in  every  age  the  Japanese  have 
persistently  refused  to  admit  the  structural  or 
decorative  style  of  sacred  edifices  into  the  domain 
of  private  architecture. 

It  is,  perhaps,  by  considering  the  costumes  of 
the  Nara  epoch  that  the  clearest  conception  is 
obtained  of  the  refinement  of  the  nation's  life  at 
that  time,  and  of  the  source  from  which  it 
derived  its  new  civilisation.  Speaking  generally, 
the  garments  worn  by  men  differed  much  less 
from  those  of  modern  Europe  than  did  the  gar- 
ments of  the  Japanese  when  they  first  became 
known  to  the  Occident.  The  essentials  were 
a  tunic-like  coat  and  trousers,  the  former  having 
comparatively  tight  sleeves,  and  being  girt  at  the 
waist  by  a  belt  made  either  of  Korean  brocade 

'39 


JAPAN 

or  of  embroidered  silk  studded  with  plates  of 
jade.  Two  other  garments  were  added  —  one 
over  the  trousers  and  one  over  the  coat  —  but 
they  had  nothing  of  the  loose  flowing  character 
usually  associated  with  Japanese  dress.  They 
were,  in  fact,  copied  with  scarcely  any  change 
from  the  Chinese  robes  of  the  epoch,  and  had 
their  dimensions  been  fuller,  they  would  be  iden- 
tical with  the  Chinese  robes  of  the  present  day. 
We  thus  conclude  that,  just  as  the  men  of 
modern  Japan  have  copied  the  costumes  of  the 
Occident  in  adopting  its  civilisation,  so  the  men 
of  ancient  Japan  imported  Chinese  robes  with 
Chinese  systems  of  morality  and  administration. 

Law  after  law  was  enacted  regulating  the  exact 
measurements  of  these  various  articles  and,  above 
all,  their  quality  and  texture.  In  early  times, 
the  best  material  available  was  manufactured 
from  the  paper  mulberry  or  from  hemp ;  but,  by 
and  by,  grass  cloth  and  cotton  fabrics  came  into 
use,  and,  in  the  fifth  century,  sericulture  and 
silk-weaving  were  successfully  practised.  The 
silk  then  produced  was  of  very  inferior  quality, 
and  though  several  fine  varieties  —  as  sarcenet, 
figured  silk,  brocade,  and  so  on  —  were  soon 
obtained,  they  served  for  ornamental  purposes 
rather  than  for  every-day  wear.  But  in  the  Nara 
epoch,  neither  the  most  elaborate  fabrics  that  the 
home  loom  could  turn  out,  nor  yet  the  rare  silks 
and  brocades  brought  from  China  by  the  Bud- 
dhist priests,  who  made  it  a  duty  to  familiarise 

140 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

Japan  with  all  the  best  products  of  Asiatic  skill, 
were  deemed  too  costly  for  purposes  of  personal 
adornment.  This  extravagant  tendency  received 
its  first  impulse  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  when,  as  part  of  the  reforms  and  re-or- 
ganisations consequent  on  the  abolition  of  the 
patriarchal  system  and  the  assumption  of  admin- 
istrative autonomy  by  the  Emperor,  the  custom 
of  employing  hats  to  distinguish  official  grades 
was  imported  from  China.  The  designing  of 
these  hats  constituted  quite  a  legislative  occupa- 
tion, and  the  story  of  the  changes  they  under- 
went is  bewildering.  One  excellent  sovereign1 
seems  to  have  been  reduced  to  a  state  of  despair- 
ing recklessness  by  sumptuary  problems,  for  he 
issued  a  decree  declaring  that  everybody  might 
wear  anything  he  pleased.  Other  monarchs, 
however,  grappled  with  the  question,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century, 
just  before  the  commencement  of  the  Nara 
epoch,  that  the  many-hued  hats  of  China  were 
exchanged  for  a  sober  head-gear  of  uniform 
colour  —  silk  gauze  covered  with  black  lacquer 
—  better  adapted  to  the  artistic  instincts  of  the 
Japanese.  It  must  not  be  imagined  that  these 
finally  evolved  hats  were  intended  to  discharge 
any  head-covering  function ;  they  were  as  inno- 
cent of  such  purpose  as  is  the  extravagant  head-gear 
of  fashionable  ladies  in  the  jin-du-sitcle  Occi- 
dent. The  hat,  supposed  to  have  the  shape  of  a 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  24. 


JAPAN 

cicada,  was  poised  on  the  top  of  the  head  much 
as  an  insect  might  have  perched  there.  At  the 
time  when  this  fortunate  simplicity  was  attained 
as  to  one  article  of  costume,  there  were  no  less 
than  eighteen  ranks  of  princes,  thirty  principal 
ranks  of  officials,  twenty  supernumerary  ranks, 
and  twelve  orders  of  merit.  All  these  had  to  be 
differentiated  by  points  of  apparel,  and  as  there 
were  three  costumes  for  each  rank  —  the  cere- 
monial costume,  the  Court  costume,  and  the  ordi- 
nary uniform  —  the  task  to  be  discharged  by  the 
bureau  of  etiquette  was  to  devise  two  hundred 
and  sixteen  varieties  of  dress.  Necessarily  the 
pettiest  details  had  to  be  enlisted  in  this  phalanx 
of  diversities.  White  trousers  were  always  de 
rigueur,  but  a  pure  white  girdle  might  be  used 
by  the  Prince  Imperial  only :  other  princes  were 
obliged  to  have  embroidered  or  figured  girdles, 
and  the  girdles  of  lower  dignitaries  had  to  be  of 
designated  colours.  Jewels  and  jade  necessarily 
adorned  the  belts  of  the  upper  ranks  of  princes. 
But  that  essentially  Chinese  fashion  did  not  long 
survive  in  Japan.  It  has  always  been  against  the 
instinct  of  the  Japanese  male  to  use  jewels  of  any 
kind  for  purposes  of  personal  adornment.  Socks 
were  made  of  silk  brocade  —  another  extrava- 
gance ultimately  abandoned  in  favour  of  white 
cotton-cloth  —  and  the  feet  were  thrust  into 
black  lacquered  shoes  with  up-tilted  toes.  As 
for  the  colour  of  the  upper  garments,  the  general 
rule  was  that  the  deeper  the  colour,  the  higher 

142 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

the  rank  —  purple,  Indian  red,  crimson,  cherry- 
red,  blue,  mulberry,  leaf-green,  grass-green,  and 
so  on,  in  fixed  gradation.  Unclassed  officials  and 
commoners  had  to  wear  yellow,  and  servants 
were  clothed  in  black.  Any  departure  from 
these  rules  in  the  sense  of  trespassing  upon  the 
costume  of  a  higher  rank,  exposed  the  delinquent 
to  severe  punishment.  Even  the  number  of 
knots  on  the  strings  of  an  amulet-bag  was  a 
matter  of  regulation,  and  a  high  official,  when  in 
full  dress,  carried  in  his  hand  a  flat  piece  of  ivory, 
fourteen  or  fifteen  inches  long,  in  imitation  of 
the  tablets  used  by  Chinese  statesmen  for  writing 
orders  or  reports. 

Ladies,  too,  were  denied  the  privilege  of 
choosing  fashions  for  themselves.  It  has  already 
been  shown  that,  in  very  early  times,  both  men 
and  women  wore  strings  of  beads  on  their  necks, 
arms,  and  legs,  and  there  is  evidence  that  each 
sex  used  to  fasten  spring-flowers  or  autumn 
sprays  in  the  hair  by  way  of  ornament.  Why 
and  when  these  customs  were  abandoned  there  is 
nothing  to  show,  but  it  is  certain  that,  in  the 
Nara  epoch,  ladies  were  required  to  use  orna- 
ments of  gold,  silver,  or  jade  for  their  heads,  and 
that  these  ornaments  generally  took  the  shape  of 
the  natural  objects  for  which  they  were  substi- 
tuted, though  sometimes  forms  from  the  Chinese 
grammar  of  art  were  chosen,  —  as  highly  conven- 
tionalised dragons  and  clouds,  tortoises  and  waves, 
or  Dogs  of  Fo  and  peonies.  Legislators  had  fur- 

H3 


JAPAN 

ther  the  temerity  to  order  the  binding  up  of  a 
lady's  hair,1  which  she  had  hitherto  worn  hang- 
ing loose,  or  merely  bound  by  a  fillet  at  the  back 
of  the  head.  But  the  authority  of  law  proved 
abortive  at  this  point :  ladies  laughed  at  a  threat 
announced  in  an  edict  of  the  Emperor  Temmu 
(673-686)  that  every  long-haired  female  should 
be  called  a  sorceress.  In  other  respects,  how- 
ever, they  had  to  bow  to  the  law.  High  rank 
conferred  on  a  lady  the  privilege  of  wearing  her 
own  locks  ;  if  she  was  below  the  sixth  grade  she 
had  to  have  a  wig.  Her  garments2  appear  to 
have  been  shaped  like  those  of  the  other  sex ;  * 
a  fact  which  must  have  simplified  matters 
considerably  for  the  officials  of  the  bureau  of 
etiquette,  and  which  was  consistent  with  the 
important  part  acted  by  women  in  all  affairs 
of  religion  and  State.  The  Emperor  Temmu 
(673—686)  seems  to  have  considered  it  desirable 
that  the  differences  between  the  habits  of  the 
sexes  should  be  still  farther  obliterated,  for  he 
forbade  women  to  ride  on  horseback  with  both 
feet  in  one  stirrup,  as  had  hitherto  been  their 
wont,  and  ordered  them  to  straddle  their  steeds 
in  male  fashion. 

The  etiquette  of  official  intercourse  naturally 
received  much  attention  side  by  side  with  these 
minute  regulations  about  costume.  In  the  reign 
of  the  fanatically  religious  Empress  Suiko  (593- 

1  See  Appendix,  note  25.  2  See  Appendix,  note  26. 

See  Appendix,  note  27. 
144 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

628),  it  had  been  enacted  that  any  one  entering 
the  palace  gate  must  kneel  on  both  knees,  place 
his  hands  on  the  ground,  bow  his  head,  and  in 
that  attitude  crawl  across  the  threshold.  Twenty 
years  later,  this  prostrate  method  of  approach  was 
abandoned  ;  to  be  again  revived  shortly  after- 
wards, and  again  finally  abandoned  towards  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century.  The  Japanese,  in 
fact,  adopted  Chinese  customs  sometimes  faith- 
fully, sometimes  tentatively.  They  were  disposed 
to  take  them  wholesale,  but  equally  disposed  to 
reject  them  after  trial.  They  did  not  then  cover 
the  floors  of  their  rooms  with  the  clean  soft 
mats  that  subsequently  came  into  universal  use. 
Boards  were  employed,  and  kneeling  on  boards 
being  irksome,  a  standing  salutation  was  substi- 
tuted. Matting,  cushions,  cr  skins  were  spread 
on  the  ground  to  serve  as  seats,  but  by  high 
officials  a  large  four-legged  dais,  a  la  Chinoise, 
was  used.  This  solid,  handsome  article  of  fur- 
niture, with  lacquered  legs  and  edges,  metal 
mountings,  and  brocade-rimmed  matting  on  its 
surface,  served  as  a  kind  of  chair  of  state.  Its 
occupant  did  not  kneel  with  his  feet  under  him, 
as  subsequently  became  the  fashion  ;  he  sat  tailor- 
wise.  Another  Chinese  custom  —  that  of  join- 
ing the  palms  of  the  raised  hands  and  clapping 
them  by  way  of  greeting  to  a  superior  —  came 
into  vogue  and  was  practised  for  a  considerable 
time.  But  being  associated  with  the  standing 
system  of  etiquette,  this  hand-clapping  courtesy 
10  145 


JAPAN 

ceased  to  be  allowed  after  the  introduction  of 
mats.  For  chairs  and  mats  were  incompatible; 
the  former  necessarily  disappeared  when  the 
latter  were  adopted,  and  since  a  matted  floor 
plainly  invited  a  kneeling  salutation,  the  palm- 
striking  obeisance  finally  disappeared  except  as 
preface  to  a  prayer  before  shrines  or  in  temples.1 
When  an  inferior  official  met  a  superior  on  the 
road,  the  former  had  to  step  aside  and  stand  still 
until  the  latter  passed,  and  had  further  to  kneel 
with  his  hands  on  the  ground  whenever  he  de- 
sired to  make  a  remark.  The  same  rule  applied 
to  youths  and  elders  irrespectively  of  rank,  and 
if  an  official  of  a  class  lower  than  fifth,  or  a  com- 
moner, happened  to  be  riding  on  horseback  when 
he  encountered  a  superior,  he  had  to  dismount 
and  stand  aside. 

The  food  of  the  people  during  the  Nara  era 
consisted  of  rice,  steamed  or  boiled,  millet,  barley, 
fish  of  various  kinds  (fresh  or  salted),  sea-weed, 
vegetables,  fruit  (pears,  chestnuts,  and  minor  vari- 
eties), and  the  flesh  of  fowl,  deer,  and  wild-boar. 
Strenuous  efforts  were  made  by  the  Court  to  en- 
force the  Buddhist  commandment  against  taking 
life,  but  the  nation  steadily  eschewed  that  kind 
of  fanaticism,  and  even  the  priests  themselves  did 
not  obey  their  own  laws.  Sake  —  a  fermented 
liquor  made  from  rice  —  and  tea,  which  had 
recently  been  imported  from  China,  were  the 
chief  beverages,  and  soy  (a  sauce  made  from 

1  See  Appendix,  note  28. 

146 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

beans)  and  vinegar  served  for  seasoning  purposes. 
In  this  context  reference  may  be  made  to  a  detail 
which  constitutes  another  point  of  likeness  between 
the  adoption  of  foreign  civilisation  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  centuries  and  its  adoption  in  modern 
times.  Milk  was  suggested  to  the  Emperor 
Kotoku  (645—654)  by  a  Korean  envoy  as  a  useful 
article  of  medicinal  diet,  and  it  found  so  much 
favour  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury a  "  milk  section "  was  established  in  the 
medical  bureau,  and  an  imperial  edict  required 
that  butter  should  be  sent  to  the  Court  periodi- 
cally from  all  parts  of  the  empire.  The  fancy 
did  not  live  more  than  a  hundred  years,  nor  was  it 
revived  until  the  eighteenth  century.  The  lower 
orders  enjoyed  none  of  these  luxuries.  A  poem 
of  the  period  shows  that  instead  of  fish,  salt  was 
their  principal  relish ;  instead  of  rice,  barley  or 
millet  their  staple  article  of  diet ;  and  instead  of 
clear  sake  they  drank  the  lees  of  the  brewer's  vat 
diluted  with  water. 

In  a  peculiarly  constructed l  wooden  storehouse 
attached  to  the  celebrated  temple  Totai-ji  there 
is  preserved  a  collection  of  objects  from  the  pal- 
aces of  the  Emperors  and  Empresses  that  reigned 
during  the  Nara  epoch.  It  would  plainly  be  a 
false  conclusion  to  regard  these  things  as  speci- 
mens of  the  furniture  and  utensils  ordinarily  used 
at  the  Court  of  Japan  in  the  eighth  century. 
Had  they  not  been  rare  and  choice  in  their  time, 

1  See  Appendix,  note  29. 

H7 


JAPAN 

they  would  not  have  been  thought  worthy  of 
preservation.  But  they  certainly  bear  witness  to 
the  refinements  of  the  era  and  to  the  affinities  of 
its  civilisation,  just  as  the  ornaments  of  a  French 
salon  in  the  sixteenth  century  bear  witness  to  the 
graces  of  life  at  that  time  and  to  the  Italian  in- 
fluences that  then  pervaded  French  asstheticism. 
Many  of  the  Totai-ji  treasures  are  of  Chinese 
provenance ;  a  few  are  Indian,  and  a  still  smaller 
number,  Persian.  China's  large  contribution 
might  have  been  expected,  for  if  the  Japanese  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  regarded  their 
continental  neighbour  as  the  source  of  everything 
that  was  best  in  matters  legislative,  ethical,  philo- 
sophical, political,  and  literary,  they  would  natur- 
ally look  to  her  also  for  standards  of  social 
refinement.  The  story  these  relics  tell  is  that 
the  occupants  of  the  Nara  palace  had  their  rice 
served  in  small  covered  cups  of  stone-ware,  with 
celadon  glaze  —  these  from  Chinese  potteries,  for 
as  yet  the  manufacture  of  vitrifiable  glazes  was 
beyond  the  capacity  of  Japanese  keramists  ;  —  ate 
fruit  from  deep  dishes  of  white  agate ;  poured 
water  from  golden  ewers  of  Persian  form,  having 
bird-shaped  spouts,  narrow  necks  and  bands  of 
frond  diaper ;  played  the  game  of  go  on  boards 
of  rich  lacquer,  using  discs  of  white  jade  and  red 
coral  for  pieces ;  burned  incense  in  censers  of 
bronze  inlaid  with  gems,  and  kept  the  incense  in 
small  boxes  of  Paulloivnia  wood  with  gold  lacquer 
decoration  —  these  of  Japanese  make,  —  or  in 

148 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

receptacles  of  Chinese  celadon  ;  wrote  with  camel's 
hair  brushes  having  bamboo  handles,  and  placed 
them  upon  rests  of  prettily  carved  coral ;  employed 
plates  of  nephrite  to  rub  down  sticks  of  Chinese 
ink ;  sat  upon  the  cushioned  floor  to  read  or 
write,  placing  the  book  or  paper  on  a  low  lec- 
tern of  wood  finely  grained  or  ornamented  with 
lacquer ;  set  up  flowers  in  slender,  long-necked 
vases  of  bronze  with  a  purple  patina ;  used  for 
pillow  a  silk-covered  bolster  stuffed  with  cotton 
and  having  designs  embroidered  in  low  relief; 
carried  long,  straight,  two-edged  swords  attached 
to  the  girdle  by  strings  (not  thrust  into  it,  as  after- 
wards became  the  fashion)  ;  kept  their  writing 
materials  in  boxes  of  coloured  or  gold  lacquer ; 
saw  their  faces  reflected  in  mirrors  of  polished 
metal,  having  the  back  repousse  and  chiselled  in 
elaborate  designs ;  kept  their  mirrors  in  cases 
lined  with  brocaded  silk  ;  girdled  themselves  with 
narrow  leather  belts,  ornamented  with  plaques  of 
silver  or  jade  and  fastened  by  means  of  buckles 
exactly  similar  to  those  used  in  Europe  or  America 
to-day ;  and  played  on  flutes  made  of  bamboo 
wood.  In  short,  the  Shoso-in  relics  introduce  us 
to  a  people  imbued  with  a  strong  taste  for  the 
refinements  of  civilisation,  but  not  yet  possessed 
of  artistic  and  technical  skill  sufficient  to  supply 
their  own  wants. 

In  this  Nara  epoch  a  legislative  attempt  was 
made  to  restrain  all  illicit  intercourse  between 
the  sexes,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  slightest 

149 


JAPAN 

success  attended  the  experiment.  There  is  noth- 
ing to  show  that  virgin  purity  was  less  esteemed 
in  a  Japanese  maiden  of  gentle  birth  than  it  has 
ever  been  esteemed  by  any  nation  under  any 
system  of  ethics.  But  the  recognition  extended 
to  concubinage  necessarily  produced  a  confusion 
of  principles.  From  the  sovereign  down  to  the 
artisan,  a  man's  extra-marital  relations  were 
limited  only  by  his  means  and  opportunities. 
The  obligation  of  sexual  fidelity  rested  on  the 
woman  alone,  and  constituted  her  whole  code  of 
morality.  She  valued  virtue,  not  for  virtue's 
sake,  but  as  part  of  her  duty  to  some  one  man 
either  in  esse  or  in  posse,  and  she  discharged  that 
duty  with  remarkable  steadfastness  whether  as  a 
maiden,  a  mistress,  or  a  wife.  But  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  since  society  did  not  scrutinise  with  any 
severity  her  relation  to  the  man  claiming  her 
affection,  and  frowned  on  her  only  when  she 
betrayed  him,  her  first  concessions  to  love  were 
often  made  without  much  ceremony.  The  cus- 
tom of  leaving  a  wife  to  reside  in  her  parental 
house  had  long  ceased  in  practice,  but  its  princi- 
ple found  expression  in  a  rule  that  when  a  man 
married,  he  must  construct  special  apartments 
for  his  bride's  accommodation.1  Another  cu- 
rious canon  was  that  until  a  girl  became  be- 
trothed, she  must  never  speak  of  herself  by  her 
family  name,  and  that  when  lovers  parted,  the 
string  of  the  man's  under-garment  was  tied  to 

1  See  Appendix,  note  30. 

150 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

that  of  the  woman,  with  a  promise  that  the  knot 
should  never  be  loosened  till  they  were  reunited. 
It  was  also  by  her  betrothed  that  a  maiden's  hair, 
which  in  girlhood  flowed  over  her  shoulders,  was 
for  the  first  time  bound  with  a  fillet.  This  last 
custom  survives  in  a  degraded  form  until  the 
present  day,  as  will  be  seen  when  the  time 
comes  to  speak  of  public  fStes  in  which  profes- 
sional dancing-girls  (geisha}  act  a  prominent 
part. 

Japan's  borrowings  from  China  were  of  course 
liberal  in  the  sphere  of  literary  culture.  Having 
no  books  of  her  own,  she  depended  entirely  on 
the  library  of  her  neighbour.  Compared  with 
the  barrenness  of  her  intellectual  realm,  that 
library  opened  up  to  her  an  immensely  fruitful 
area  of  science,  philosophy,  and  belles  lettres,  and 
there  would  be  no  grounds  for  surprise  had  she 
lost  herself  in  its  multitudinous  paths.  But  if  we 
except  the  engrossing  claim  that  Confucianism 
made  upon  her  attention,  the  chief  effect  pro- 
duced upon  her  by  Chinese  literature  was  to  set 
her  to  writing  poetry.  Throughout  the  century 
culminating  at  the  zenith  of  the  Nara  epoch,  she 
abandoned  herself  almost  deliriously  to  that  oc- 
cupation. To  turn  a  couplet  deftly  became  the 
test  not  merely  of  literary  education  but  even  of 
administrative  competence.  There  is  difficulty 
in  conveying  to  the  mind  of  a  Western  reader 
any  exact  idea  of  the  habit  that  grew  out  of  this 
poetic  extravagance.  If  at  a  banquet  given  by 


JAPAN 

the  sovereign  of  England  to  his  Ministers  and 
leading  civil  and  military  officials,  or  at  a  recep- 
tion by  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  the 
White  House,  pens  and  paper  were  handed 
round,  and  all  the  guests  were  invited  to  spend 
several  hours  composing  versicles  on  themes  set 
by  Mr.  McKinley  or  King  Edward,  and  further, 
if  the  pastime  were  repeated  again  and  again, 
day  after  day,  until  the  construction  of  couplets 
became  an  engrossing  national  occupation,  such 
a  state  of  affairs  would  represent  with  tolerable 
accuracy  the  custom  that  began  to  come  into 
vogue  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  — 
a  custom  which  produced  its  best  results  from  a 
literary  point  of  view  a  hundred  years  later  in 
the  Nara  epoch,  and  continued  in  an  even  in- 
creasing degree  through  several  generations. 

But  although  this  poetic  mania  is  here  asso- 
ciated with  the  introduction  of  Chinese  literature, 
it  did  not  derive  its  metric  inspiration  from  that 
source.  The  Japanese  system  of  versification  is 
their  own,1  nor  did  their  poets  borrow  anything 
from  the  treasures  of  Chinese  literature.  It  is  a 
system  radically  different  from  the  Chinese  system  ; 
radically  different  from  the  system  of  any  other 
country,  Eastern  or  Western.  Uniquely  in  this 
one  path  they  ignored  their  neighbour's  influence, 
and  wrote  unrhymed  lines  which  derived  their 
poetic  character  solely  from  the  rhythmic  beat 
of  a  fixed  number  of  syllables,  five  followed  by 

1  See  Appendix,  note  3 1 . 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

seven,  seven  followed  by  five,  in  changeless  alter- 
nation. What  Chinese  intercourse  did  was  to 
supply  a  medium  for  transcribing  these  stanzas, 
and  to  suggest  the  custom  of  composing  them  as 
a  pastime  at  social  reunions.  The  art  itself  had 
long  existed  in  Japan,  but  from  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century  it  became  a  polite  accomplish- 
ment. The  Japanese  stanza  defies  translation  in 
any  other  language.  It  is  a  verbal  melody  which 
cannot  be  transposed ;  cannot  be  played  on  a 
foreign  instrument.  There  is  virtually  no  such 
thing  as  versified  narrative ;  no  subject  is  treated 
continuously  in  varying  phases.  In  Occidental 
poetry  the  cadence  of  the  verse  is  the  accompani- 
ment of  the  idea ;  in  Japanese  poetry,  the  idea  is 
set  to  the  cadence.  The  Greeks  by  a  laboured 
organisation  of  strophe,  antistrophe,  and  epode, 
strove  to  impart  to  their  chorus  harmonic  as  well 
as  metrical  value.  The  Japanese,  by  a  regular 
alternation  of  syllabic  chords,  succeeded  in  com- 
bining the  effects  of  music  and  metre.  The  em- 
bodied idea  is  seldom  more  than  a  mere  suggestion; 
the  whisper  of  a  thought  pervading  the  melody. 
The  music  is  everything.  To  seek  in  the  pro- 
ductions of  such  an  art  high  displays  of  dramatic 
imagination,  is  as  idle  as  to  render  these  snatches 
of  music  into  the  rhymed  verses  of  Western  metri- 
cal art.  To  form  a  true  conception  of  Japanese 
poetry  one  must  read  it  in  the  original. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  in  an  age  when 
the  passion  for  verbal  melody  attained  such  pro- 

'53 


JAPAN 

portions,  dancing  also  must  have  been  in  wide 
favour.  There  is  no  Japanese  music  that  will 
not  serve  as  accompaniment  for  the  Japanese 
stanza,  and  the  stanza,  in  turn,  adapts  itself  per- 
fectly to  the  fashion  of  the  Japanese  dance.  The 
law  of  the  unities  seems  to  have  prescribed  that 
the  cadence  of  the  stanza  should  melt  into  the 
lilt  of  the  song,  and  that  the  measure  of  the  song 
should  be  worked  out  by  the  "  woven  paces  and 
waving  hands  "  of  the  dance.  That  is  the  inevit- 
able impression  produced  by  Japanese  poetry, 
Japanese  music,  and  Japanese  dancing.  The  affin- 
ity between  them  is  so  close  that  it  is  difficult  to 
tell  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends.1  The 
music  of  words,  the  music  of  motion,  and  the 
music  of  song  rank  equally  in  popular  apprecia- 
tion. Of  course  Buddhist  music  is  not  included 
in  that  description.  Buddhist  music  is  a  wail,  a 
threnody.  It  makes  no  appeal  to  the  natural 
disposition  of  the  Japanese,  and  the  vogue  it  ob- 
tained from  the  Nara  epoch  onwards  largely  con- 
tributed to  the  growth  of  a  dangerous  form  of 
pessimism.  The  tendency  of  the  Japanese  has 
always  been  to  accompany  their  feasting  and 
merry-making  with  music,  versifying,  and  danc- 
ing. At  the  time  now  under  consideration,  there 
was  the  "  winding  water  fete,"  when  princes, 
high  officials,  courtiers,  and  noble  ladies  seated 
themselves  by  the  banks  of  a  rivulet  meandering 
gently  through  some  fair  park,  and  launched  tiny 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  32. 

154 


IN     THE     NARA     EPOCH 

cups  of  mulled  wine  upon  the  current,  each  com- 
posing a  stanza  as  the  little  messenger  reached 
him,  or  drinking  its  contents  by  way  of  penalty 
for  lack  of  poetic  inspiration.  There  were  also 
the  flower  festivals  —  that  for  the  plum-blossoms, 
that  for  the  iris,  and  that  for  the  lotus,  all  of  which 
were  instituted  in  this  same  Nara  epoch  —  when 
the  composition  of  couplets  was  quite  as  impor- 
tant as  the  viewing  of  the  flowers.  There  was 
further  the  grand  New  Year's  banquet  in  the 
"  hall  of  tranquillity "  at  the  Court,  when  all 
officials  from  the  sixth  grade  downwards  sang  a 
stanza  of  loyal  gratitude,  accompanying  themselves 
on  the  koto.1  Specially  remarkable  was  the  Ufa- 
gaki,  which  in  this  epoch  assumed  the  dimensions 
of  a  grand  spectacular  display.  Hundreds  of 
youths  and  maidens,  wearing  blue  silk  robes  with 
long  red  girdles,  assembled  at  the  palace  gate  and 
danced  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  the  men 
and  women  in  separate  rows ;  and  thereafter  con- 
tinued the  performance  through  the  city,  singing 
in  union  some  simple  stanza,  such  as 

Crystal-born  river, 
Hakata,  thy  jewelled  stream 
Flows  through  ten  thousand 
Times  ten  thousand  ages,  pure. 

It  was  an  era  of  refined,  effeminate  amusements. 
Wrestling  had  now  become  the  pursuit  of  pro- 
fessionals. Aristocrats  engaged  in  no  rougher 

1  See  Appendix,  note  33. 

155 


JAPAN 

pastime  than  archery,  polo,  a  species  of  football, 
hawking  and  hunting.  Everybody  gambled.  It 
was  in  vain  that,  from  the  time  of  the  Empress 
Jito  (694-696],  edicts  were  issued  against  dicing 
(sugoroku).  Tne  vice  defied  official  restraint. 


.56 


Chapter  VI 

THE   HEIAN  EPOCH 

(End  ef  the  Eighth  te  the  Middle  of  the  Twelfth  Century) 

IT  has  been  shown  that  after  the  fall  of  the 
patriarchal   system  of  government   the   ad- 
ministrative power  reverted  to  the  sovereign, 
and  that  a   series  of  vigorous  reforms  were 
undertaken  on  the  lines  of  Chinese  civilisation. 
But  the  Emperor  did  not  long  remain  autocratic, 
nor  did  many  of  the  reforms  prove  permanent. 
Mommu's  (697—707)  democratic  edict,  declaring 
that  the  throne  rested  on  the  people,  had  scarcely 
been  acclaimed  by  the  nation  when  the  Fujiwara 1 
family  began  to  wield  power  which  soon  assumed 
extraordinary  proportions. 

This  family  was  founded  by  Kamatari.  He 
came  into  notice  by  compassing  the  destruction 
of  the  last  of  the  patriarchal  clans  (the  Soga),  and 
fate,  with  her  usual  irony,  decreed  that  he  him- 
self should  be  the  founder  of  a  clan  beside  whose 
usurpations  those  of  the  Soga,  or  any  other  Japan- 
ese clan,  look  insignificant.  Kamatari  traced  his 
descent  back  to  the  days  of  Jimmu,  but  even  if 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  34. 

157 


JAPAN 

the  reckoning  commence  with  himself  in  the 
seventh  century,  the  Fujiwara  are  sufficiently 
antique.  There  has  been  no  break  in  the  con- 
tinuity of  their  line.  They  were  the  repositories 
of  the  administrative  power  for  nearly  five  cen- 
turies. Their  name  is  borne  by  ninety-five  out 
of  the  hundred  and  forty-five  families  constituting 
the  Japanese  court  nobility.  Their  daughters  en- 
joyed through  all  ages,  and  still  enjoy,  a  kind  of 
prescriptive  title  to  be  the  Emperors'  consorts.1 
Their  sons  established  a  hereditary  right  to  fill 
the  highest  offices  in  the  State.  The  history  of 
Japan,  during  the  twelve  hundred  years  covered 
by  her  written  annals,  may  truly  be  described  as 
the  history  of  four  families,  the  Fujiwara,  the 
Taira,  the  Minamoto,  and  the  Tokugawa. 

It  is  usual  to  adopt  as  lines  of  division  the  Nara 
epoch,  the  Heian  (Kyoto)  epoch,  the  Kamakura 
epoch,  and  the  Yedo  epoch,  —  a  classification  based 
on  the  fact  that  each  of  these  places  was  in  turn 
the  seat  of  administrative  authority.  But  the 
course  of  political  change  is  more  intelligently 
indicated  by  taking  for  landmarks  the  successive 
usurpations  of  the  four  great  families.  The  Fuji- 
wara governed  through  the  Emperor ;  the  Taira, 
the  Minamoto,  and  the  Tokugawa  may  be  said 
to  have  governed  in  spite  of  the  Emperor.  The 
Fujiwara  based  their  power  on  matrimonial  al- 
liances with  the  Throne ;  the  Taira,  the  Mina- 
moto, and  the  Tokugawa  based  theirs  on  the 

1  See  Appendix,  note  35. 

15! 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

possession  of  armed  strength  which  the  Throne 
had  no  competence  to  control.  There  another 
broad  line  of  cleavage  is  seen.  Throughout  the 
Fujiwara  era  the  centre  of  political  gravity,  though 
shifted  from  the  sovereign  to  the  Court  nobles, 
remained  always  in  the  Court.  Throughout  the 
era  of  the  Taira,  the  Minamoto,  and  the  Toku- 
gawa,  the  centre  of  political  gravity  was  transferred 
to  a  point  altogether  outside  the  Court,  the  head- 
quarters of  a  military  feudalism.  • 

One  fact  has  always  to  be  remembered  in  con- 
nection with  the  usurpations  of  these  families : 
their  ancestors  were  not  ordinary  subjects.  The 
Fujiwara  traced  their  origin  to  the  era  of  gods.  The 
progenitors  of  the  Taira  and  the  Minamoto  were 
sons  of  Emperors  reigning  at  the  commencement 
of  the  ninth  century.  The  Tokugawa  were  a 
branch  of  the  Minamoto.  If  a  broad  survey  of 
Japanese  history  indicates  that  the  sanctity  derived 
by  a  sovereign  from  his  divine  lineage  contributed 
to  the  stability  of  his  throne  only  in  so  far  as  it 
constituted  a  charter  of  power  for  the  nominal, 
but  really  usurping,  agents  of  his  will,  the  same 
history  indicates  that  those  agents  were  themselves 
scions  of  the  Imperial  stock. 

In  the  year  794  the  Imperial  capital  was 
transferred  from  Nara  to  Kyoto1  by  order  of  the 
Emperor,  Kwammu.  It  has  been  conjectured 
that  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  change  was 
to  separate  religion  and  politics.  The  extrav- 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  36. 

159 


JAPAN 

agant  patronage  bestowed  on  the  Buddhist  priests 
during  the  Nara  epoch  had  educated  in  them  a 
spirit  of  arrogance  which  Kwammu  saw  the  ne- 
cessity of  checking.  Some  colour  is  lent  to  this 
theory  by  a  fact,  independently  interesting,  namely, 
that  Kwammu  worshipped  the  "  heavenly  King  " 
with  offerings  of  burnt  sacrifices,  thus  apparently 
setting  up  a  new  supreme  ruler  and  a  new  method 
of  propitiating  him.  But  that  incident  of  his 
career  probably  indicates  nothing  more  than  a 
close  study  of  Confucianism,  which  couples  wor- 
ship of  Shang  Ti,  a  shadowy  "  Supreme,"  with 
worship  of  ancestors,  nor  can  any  hostility  to 
Buddhism  be  attributed  to  a  monarch  whose  zeal 
in  building  and  endowing  Buddhist  temples  is 
historical.  The  more  rational  explanation  of  the 
transfer  of  the  capital  to  Kyoto  is  that  it  was  part 
of  a  scheme  for  the  better  centralisation  of  ad- 
ministrative power. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  the  three 
great  difficulties  of  the  time  were  the  growth  of 
provisional  autocrats  who  ignored  the  mandates 
of  the  Throne ;  the  continued  revolt  of  the  au- 
tochthons, and  the  reappearance  of  the  system 
of  hereditary  office-bearers. 

Less  than  a  century  had  sufficed  to  nullify 
many  of  the  Taikiva  and  Taiho  reforms  described 
in  the  last  chapter.  One  great  purpose  of  those 
reforms  had  been  to  give  practical  force  to  the 
principle  of  the  Throne's  eminent  domain  and  to 
make  the  land  the  chief  source  of  the  State's 

1 60 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

income.  But  the  reckless  expenditure  of  the 
Court  and  of  the  patrician  class  necessitated  such 
heavy  rates  of  taxation  that  the  farmers  had  to  bor- 
row money  and  rice  from  officials  or  Buddhist 
priests,  and  since  they  had  nothing  to  offer  by 
way  of  security  except  their  lands,  it  resulted 
that  the  temples  and  the  nobles  began  to  acquire 
great  estates  of  which  the  Government  hesitated 
to  resume  possession,  as  prescribed  by  law,  and 
the  agricultural  population  gradually  fell  into 
a  condition  of  practical  serfdom.  So  miserable 
was  their  plight  that  many  preferred  to  embrace 
the  status  of  slaves,  and  others  turned  to  highway 
robbery  and  piracy.  The  Court,  absorbed  in 
ceremonial  observances,  elaborate  pastimes,  and 
superstitious  extravagances,  made  no  serious  effort 
to  check  these  abuses,  or  to  assert  its  authority 
over  the  provincial  magnates,  who  generally  took 
the  precaution  of  allying  themselves  with  some 
of  the  prominent  families  in  the  capital.  Grad- 
ually both  the  provincial  magnates  and  the 
metropolitan  nobles  began  to  openly  defy  the 
restrictions  imposed  by  law  upon  the  bearing  of 
arms,  attached  to  their  persons  large  guards  of 
sword-girt  soldiers,  and  maintained  autocratic 
state  not  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  Court 
itself.  The  sovereign  might  not  venture  to 
deprive  such  men  of  the  administrative  posts 
held  by  them,  and  thus  the  old  vice  of  heredi- 
tary office-bearers  again  came  into  practice, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  the  administrative  im- 
ii  161 


JAPAN 

potence  resulting  from  such  anarchy  en- 
couraged the  autochthons  to  vigorous  revolt  in 
the  north. 

These  were  the  conditions  with  which 
Kwammu  had  to  deal  when  he  ascended  the 
throne  towards  the  close  of  the  eighth  century. 
The  Taikwa  and  ¥aihb  reforms  had  failed  in  cer- 
tain important  respects,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to 
detect  the  reason  of  their  want  of  success.  The 
system  they  introduced  was,  on  the  one  hand, 
incompatible  with  the  ends  they  were  intended 
to  compass,  and,  on  the  other,  encouraged  the 
tendencies  they  were  designed  to  eradicate.  The 
administrative  principles  of  the  Tang  dynasty 
which  the  reformers  copied,  were  so  permeated 
with  the  spirit  of  pomp  and  ceremony  ;  the  func- 
tions of  each  office  conferred  such  privileges  and 
distinctions  on  its  holder ;  the  whole  body  of 
officialdom,  wide  as  were  the  intervals  between 
its  various  grades,  was  so  far  removed  from  the 
mass  of  the  plebs,  that  irresistible  forces  became 
operative  for  the  resurrection  of  the  patriarchal 
rights  which  the  fall  of  the  Soga  family  had 
buried.  Tenchi  appreciated  that  his  reforms 
conld  never  be  permanent  unless  he  radically 
changed  the  status  of  the  plebs.  But  the  means 
he  devised  for  that  end  —  probably  the  only 
means  within  his  power  —  were  quite  inade- 
quate, and  he  does  not  seem  to  have  perceived 
that  the  immense  access  of  dignity  and  impor- 
tance gained  by  the  administrative  class  under  the 

162 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

Chinese  system,  must  surely  revive  the  ambitions 
which  had  proved  so  irksome  to  his  predecessors. 
He  himself  sought  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
commoners  by  remitting  their  taxes,  but  his  suc- 
cessors paid  little  attention  to  that  important 
point,  and  even  if  the  exotic  system  had  not 
tended  to  widen  the  distance  between  the  two 
sections  of  the  nation,  the  crushing  fiscal  burdens 
imposed  on  the  lower  orders  must  have  produced 
that  result.  Kwammu,  following  him  at  an 
interval  of  nearly  two  centuries,  showed  equal 
vigour  of  purpose,  but,  for  the  same  reasons,  pro- 
duced an  equally  ephemeral  impression  upon  the 
abuses  he  sought  to  remedy.  He  commenced, 
as  stated  above,  by  transferring  the  capital  to 
Kyoto,  and  building  it  on  a  scale  that  educated 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  an  overwhelming 
conception  of  the  might  and  majesty  of  the 
Court.  He  then  undertook  to  separate  religion 
and  politics  by  removing  all  priests  from  adminis- 
trative posts,  and  he  essayed  to  check  the  nation's 
extravagant  expenditures  on  Buddhism  by  inter- 
dicting the  building  of  temples  without  imperial 
permission.  He  forbade  the  seizure  of  lands  for 
debt.  He  abolished  offices  that  had  been  created 
for  the  sake  of  their  occupants,  and  he  ruthlessly 
removed  all  incompetent  officials.  To  deal  with 
the  northern  rebels,  he  ordered  the  eight  prov- 
inces watered  by  the  river  Tone  —  namely,  the 
Eando  section  of  Japan  —  to  organise  each  a 
body  of  from  500  to  1000  men,  the  sons  of  local 

163 


JAPAN 

administrators  and  ex-officials,1  and  he  directed 
that  they  should  be  constantly  trained  in  military 
arts.  He  made  a  bold  effort  to  free  himself  from 
the  interference  of  the  great  families  which  were 
again  beginning  to  usurp  the  governing  power. 
He  essayed  to  get  into  close  touch  with  the 
people,  as  his  great-grandfather,  Tenchi,  had 
done.  He  tried  to  thrust  aside  the  provincial 
autocrats  and  to  bring  the  lower  officials  within 
the  range  of  direct  responsibility.  He  exhibited 
magnanimity2  rare  in  any  record.  In  short,  he 
ranks  as  one  of  Japan's  three  greatest  sovereigns, 
—  Tenchi,  Kwammu,  and  Godaigo,  —  yet  he  left 
no  permanent  mark  upon  his  time,  except,  per- 
haps, the  subjugation  of  the  northern  rebels,  — 
the  Yezo,  —  whose  revolt,  continuous  during 
twenty-two  years,  was  finally  quelled  by  his  gen- 
erals after  an  eight  years'  campaign.  It  was 
partly  Kwammu's  misfortune,  largely  his  fault, 
that  so  far  from  giving  any  financial  relief  to  the 
lower  classes,  he  imposed  upon  them  a  heavier 
burden  of  taxation  than  ever  ;  for  to  the  inevitable 
outlays  caused  by  the  long  war  against  the  Yezo, 
he  added  large  expenditures  for  the  building  of 
temples  in  spite  of  his  professed  desire  to  check 
such  extravagance,  —  and  still  larger  for  the  in- 
dulgence of  his  passionate  love  of  hunting,  a 
mania  that  led  him  to  organise  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  forty  hunting  excursions  during  his 
reign  of  twenty-five  years. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  37.  2  See  Appendix,  note  38. 

164 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

Kwammu's  reign  deserves  this  somewhat  de- 
tailed notice  because  it  marks  the  parting  of  the 
ways  in  mediaeval  Japan.  His  was  the  last  really 
resolute  struggle  made  during  three  and  a  half 
centuries  to  stem  the  influences  that  were  plainly 
tending  towards  the  substitution  of  bureaucracy 
for  imperialism,  the  subordination  of  the  Throne 
to  the  nobility. 

Extraordinary  importance  attached  to  rank 
under  the  system  introduced  from  China.  With- 
out attempting  to  explain  the  elaborate  classifi- 
cation prescribed  and  strictly  observed,  it  will 
suffice  to  say  that  the  privilege  of  entree  to  the 
"hall  of  purity  and  freshness"  in  the  Palace 
was  confined  to  officials  of  a  certain  grade  and 
their  sons,  and  could  scarcely  be  obtained  by 
any  length  of  service  or  display  of  merit  in  a 
lower  grade.  Thus  arose  a  broad  division  of  the 
patrician  order  into  "  palatials "  (denjo-bito)  and 
"  groundlings "  (chige-bito],  and  so  sternly  was 
the  distinction  preserved  that  the  latter  stood  to 
the  former  in  a  relation  not  much  superior  to 
serfdom.1  The  power  and  perquisites  attaching 
to  the  higher  offices  were  proportionately  great, 
and  since  it  thus  became  worth  while  to  purchase 
the  patronage  of  the  leading  dignitaries  at  the 
cost  of  almost  any  service,  there  grew  up  a  large 
body  of  fortune-seekers  who  occupied  a  position 
of  vassalage  towards  their  patrons.  The  Em- 
peror nevertheless  remained  the  nominal  fountain 

1  See  Appendix,  note  39. 

165 


JAPAN 

of  all  rank  and  office,  and  His  Majesty's  favour 
was  courted  not  solely  by  displays  of  poetising 
skill  or  administrative  ability,  but  also  by  the 
more  elementary  device  of  female  influence. 

There  could  be  only  one  Empress.  To  that 
high  dignity,  therefore,  not  many  aspired.  But 
no  limit  existed  as  to  the  number  of  ladies  hav- 
ing the  entree  of  the  Imperial  bed-chamber,  and 
since  any  one  of  these  nyogo  (imperial  dames),  or 
koi  (ladies  of  the  wardrobe),  as  they  were  called, 
might  become  an  "  Imperial  Resting  Place " 
(Myasudokoro),  if  she  had  the  good  fortune  to 
bear  a  child  to  the  sovereign,  or  might  attain  the 
splendid  title  of  "  national  mother  "  (Kokubo)  if 
her  son  was  nominated  heir  apparent ;  and  since, 
even  in  the  absence  of  any  such  incident,  she 
might  hope  to  win  her  Imperial  master's  favour 
by  other  means,  the  great  nobles  vied  with  each 
other  to  get  their  daughters  or  sisters  into  the 
palace.  Some  sacrifice  had  to  be  made  for  the 
purpose.  The  lady  was  required  to  have  a 
guardian  prepared  to  defray  all  the  expenses  of 
her  apparel  and  paraphernalia,  and  to  superin- 
tend her  personal  affairs.  Without  a  guardian  a 
girl's  prospects  were  hopeless,  and  the  same  was 
true  of  a  boy.  However  noble  his  birth,  he 
ceased  to  be  an  object  of  consideration  if,  on  the 
death  of  his  parents,  no  man  of  position  and 
means  undertook  responsibility  for  him. 

But  if  the  general  body  of  the  nobles  were  al- 
lowed to  compete  for  their  daughters'  admission 

166 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

to  the  Imperial  chamber,  the  Fujiwara  family 
took  care  that  the  post  of  Empress  should  be  re- 
served for  ladies  of  their  own  lineage.  That  was 
their  great  political  device.  By  progressive  exer- 
cises of  arbitrariness  they  gradually  contrived  that 
the  choice  of  a  consort  for  the  sovereign  should 
be  legally  limited  to  a  daughter  of  their  family, 
five  branches  of  which  were  specially  designated 
to  that  honour  through  all  ages,  and  were  con- 
sequently distinguished  by  the  name  Go-sekke 
(the  five  assistant  houses).  When  a  son  was  born 
to  a  sovereign,  the  Fujiwara  took  the  child  into 
one  of  their  palaces,  and  on  his  accession  to  the 
Throne,  the  particular  Fujiwara  noble  that  hap- 
pened to  be  his  maternal  grandfather  became 
Regent  of  the  Empire. 

It  is  necessary  to  understand  this  term  "  Re- 
gent/' Prior  to  the  Fujiwara  usurpations,  the 
first  subject  in  the  Empire  had  been  the  Prime 
Minister  (Daijo  Daijin].  But  the  Fujiwara's 
method  of  procedure  demanded  an  office  with 
still  greater  potentialities.  Their  plan  for  retain- 
ing the  supreme  power  in  their  own  hands  was 
not  to  allow  the  sceptre  to  be  held  by  an  Em- 
peror after  he  had  attained  his  majority,  or,  if 
they  suffered  him  to  figure  as  sovereign  during 
a  few  years  of  manhood,  they  compelled  him  to 
abdicate  at  the  moment  when  his  independent 
aspirations  began  to  impair  his  docility.  For 
purposes  of  administration  in  these  constantly 
recurring  minorities  a  new  office  was  required, 

167 


JAPAN 

and  towards  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  the 
post  of  Kwampaku  (Regent)  was  created  and 
made  hereditary  in  the  Fujiwara  family,  as  the 
office  of  Prime  Minister  had  already  become. 
The  Regent  continued  to  officiate  even  when  the 
sovereign  was  a  major.  He  stood  between  the 
Throne  and  the  nation.  Every  official  commu- 
nication must  pass  through  his  hands  before 
reaching  the  Emperor.  Thus  the  authority  of 
the  Mikado  (sublime  gate)  practically  passed  to 
the  Fujiwara.1 

If  the  responsibility  of  restoring  the  evil  system 
of  hereditary  office-holding  in  the  capital  rests 
with  the  Fujiwara,  the  abuse,  it  must  be  admitted, 
had  never  been  fully  abolished  in  the  provinces. 
An  attempt  to  abolish  it  was  made,  but  practical 
experience  suggested  that  in  the  administration 
of  remote  regions,  the  interests  of  the  central 
government,  as  well  as  those  of  the  people,  were 
best  served  by  officials  having  permanent  associa- 
tions with  the  localities  where  their  duties  lay. 
Hence  a  provincial  governor  (Koku-shii),  himself 
commissioned  by  the  Court,  received  authority  to 
appoint  and  remove  district  headmen  (Gun-sht). 
But  his  nominees  were  generally  creatures  of  his 
own,  as  was  natural,  and  thus  the  whole  province 
gradually  passed  beyond  the  control  of  the  capi- 
tal. In  vain  the  Court  tried  to  enforce  its 
authority  by  means  of  "  high  constables  "  (chim- 
bunsht)  and  inspectors  (ansatsusht).  These  offi- 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  40. 

168 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

cials  were  unable  to  assert  themselves  against  the 
Governors  and  District  Headmen  acting  in  collu- 
sion, and  it  was  therefore  deemed  expedient  to 
make  the  two  last  mutually  independent  by 
restoring  its  hereditary  character  to  the  office  of 
Headman.  The  expedient  did  not  achieve  its 
purpose.  No  expedient  could  have  been  service- 
able under  the  conditions  that  existed  ;  namely, 
powerlessness  on  the  Court's  part  to  give  effect 
to  its  mandates,  exceeding  imperfection  of  com- 
munications, and  large  opportunities  for  profit- 
able dishonesty.  The  Court  had  long  ceased  to 
possess  any  military  force  of  its  own.  Having  no 
standing  army,  it  relied  for  protection  solely  on 
guards  temporarily  drafted  from  the  provincial 
levies.  The  nation's  perception  of  this  weakness 
might  have  been  postponed  had  not  the  rebellion 
of  the  autochthons  in  the  north  occurred.  But 
the  subjugation  of  these  semi-savages  defied  the 
resources  of  the  Court  for  twenty-two  years,  and 
was  effected  at  last  by  the  troops  of  the  Bando 
provinces  whom  the  Emperor  Kwammu  had 
caused  to  be  organised.  Here,  then,  was  an 
object  lesson  not  to  be  misinterpreted.  The  power 
of  the  sword  obviously  lay  with  the  provinces, 
and  the  Court  nobles  showed  their  appreciation 
of  the  fact  by  cementing  alliances  with  the 
Bando  captains.  Now  the  State  derived  its  rev- 
enue chiefly  from  taxes  levied  on  the  land,  and 
if  a  provincial  governor  reported  that  drought, 
tempest,  or  inundation  had  impaired  or  destroyed 

169 


JAPAN 

the  tax-paying  capacities  of  the  farmers,  no  trust- 
worthy means  existed  of  verifying  the  report, 
for  an  imperial  inspector  could  either  be  thwarted 
with  impunity  or  shown  a  course  more  profitable 
than  sincerity,  and,  failing  those  expedients, 
a  defaulting  governor  could  count  on  the  protec- 
tion of  some  great  magnate  in  the  capital  with 
whose  family  he  was  connected.  The  Court  was 
thus  gradually  stripped  alike  of  its  authority  and 
of  its  revenues. 

This  page  of  history  deserves  attention,  for  it 
lays  bare  the  foundations  of  the  feudal  system 
destined  to  come  into  existence  three  centuries 
later,  and  to  stand  intact  for  eight  hundred  years. 
Closely  connected  with  that  system  is  the  land 
question.  Japanese  rulers,  though  their  practice 
tended  to  the  adoption  of  the  single  tax,  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  guided  by  any  economical 
principle  in  dealing  with  this  problem.  Their 
fundamental  idea  was  to  bring  a  maximum  area 
of  land  within  the  range  of  the  tax-collector. 
It  was  always  a  recognised  rule,  however,  that 
lands  granted  as  official  emoluments  or  in  recog- 
nition of  public  merit  should  be  exempted  from 
taxation.  Hence  hereditary  office  involved  per- 
petual tenure  of  untaxed  land,  and  every  claim 
established  on  the  Court's  favour  by  great  families 
meant  a  further  reduction  of  the  taxable  area 
with  a  correspondingly  increased  impost  on  the 
remaining  lands.  These  abuses  were  well  illus- 
trated at  the  commencement  of  the  Heian  epoch. 

170 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

The  Emperor  Saga  (810-825)  conferred  an  estate 
of  "  fifteen  thousand  houses "  on  the  Fujiwara 
family,  and  made  large  grants  to  princes,  prin- 
cesses, Court  ladies  and  nobles  ;  and  a  few  years 
later,  the  Emperor  Seiwa  (859-876)  so  greatly 
extended  the  system  that  twenty-eight  kinds 
of  tax-free  estates  were  officially  catalogued,  in- 
cluding temple  lands,  musicians'  lands,  school 
lands,  and  so  on.  Hence,  during  the  first  forty 
years  of  the  Heian  epoch,  the  rate  of  taxation 
for  those  remaining  liable  was  doubled,  and 
before  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  each  farmer 
was  paying  to  the  central  government  one- 
eleventh  of  the  gross  produce  of  his  rice-land,  in 
addition  to  a  corvee  of  thirty  days'  labour  annu- 
ally. Further,  in  many  instances  the  provincial 
governors  levied  independent  taxes  on  behalf 
of  Court  magnates  and  imperial  relatives  with 
whom  they  had  special  relations.  The  Court 
itself  possessed  estates  chosen  in  the  most  fruitful 
parts  of  the  empire,  but  these  resources  did  not 
suffice  for  the  support  of  the  rapidly  growing 
number  of  Imperial  princes,  and  it  became  neces- 
sary to  give  them  family  names  so  that  they 
might  lay  aside  their  princely  titles,  and  be  en- 
abled to  take  office  in  the  capital  or  the  prov- 
inces. Thus,  in  the  year  814,  the  name  of 
"  Minamoto  "  was  conferred  on  four  princes,  and 
in  835  the  name  of  "  Taira  "  on  a  fifth,  the  prov- 
inces of  Kazusa,  Hitachi,  and  Kozuke  being 
assigned  for  the  support  of  the  former,  who 

171 


JAPAN 

thenceforth  ruled  there  as  governors,  while  dis- 
tricts in  the  south  were  similarly  allotted  to  the 
Taira  family.  In  this  way  the  foundations  of 
the  feudal  system  were  firmly  laid,  and  the 
ephemeral  reforms  directed  against  hereditary 
offices  and  perpetual  tenure  of  land,  ceased  to  be 
even  nominally  effective  in  the  capital  and  the 
country  alike. 

This  fall  from  the  administrative  and  economic 
standards  set  up  by  the  sovereigns  Tenchi  and 
Kwammu  can  scarcely  be  called  retrogression, 
for  in  truth  the  nation  had  never  lived  up  to  such 
standards :  they  had  been  from  the  first  incom- 
patible with  the  state  of  its  intelligence.  And 
if,  on  the  other  side  of  the  account,  there  stands 
to  the  credit  of  the  Heian  epoch  much  progress 
in  the  refinements  of  civilisation,  it  was  a  civilisa- 
tion which  tended  rapidly  to  moral  degeneration, 
and  must  have  produced  fatal  consequences  had 
it  not  been  happily  checked  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury by  the  evolution  of  a  robust  though  com- 
paratively rude  militarism. 

It  is  often  said  of  the  Japanese  that  they  are 
conspicuously  indifferent  to  religion.  If  by  reli- 
gion is  meant  belief  in  the  supernatural,  and  in 
the  constant  interference  of  supernatural  beings 
in  the  affairs  of  every-day  life,  then  such  a  saying 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  story  of  the  Heian 
epoch.  Perhaps  it  should  be  explained  here 
that  the  term  "  Heian  epoch  "  is  used  chrono- 
logically in  the  sense  of  the  interval  between  the 

172 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

close  of  the  eighth  century  and  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  ;  and  politically  in  the  sense  of  the 
era  during  which  the  Fujiwara  family  adminis- 
tered the  national  affairs  through  the  Court  in 
Kyoto. 

There  are,  in  fact,  six  great  divisions  of  Japan- 
ese history  :  first,  the  patriarchal  age  when  the 
sovereign  was  only  the  head  of  a  group  of  tribal 
chiefs,  each  possessing  a  hereditary  share  of  the 
governing  power ;  secondly,  a  brief  period,  from 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  to  the  early  part  of  the 
eighth  century,  when  the  tribal  chiefs  had  dis- 
appeared and  the  Throne  was  approximately 
autocratic ;  thirdly,  an  interval  of  some  eighty 
years,  called  the  Nara  epoch,  during  which  the 
propagandism  of  Buddhism,  and  the  development 
of  the  material  and  artistic  civilisation  that  came 
in  that  religion's  train,  engrossed  the  attention  of 
the  nation ;  fourthly,  the  Heian  epoch,  a  period 
of  three  centuries,  when  the  Court  in  Kyoto 
ruled  vicariously  through  the  Fujiwara  family ; 
fifthly,  the  age  of  military  feudalism,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  the  administrative 
power  was  grasped  by  soldier  nobles ;  and  sixthly, 
the  present,  or  Meiji,  epoch  of  constitutional 
monarchy.  Among  these  six  eras,  the  Nara  and 
Heian  were  richest  in  religious  influences ;  the 
Meiji  is  poorest. 

It  has  been  shown  already  that  the  supernatu- 
ral had  a  large  place  in  the  thoughts  of  the  early 

173 


JAPAN 

Japanese,  and  that  for  important  guidance  they 
relied  on  divination,  omens,  ordeals,  and  portents 
of  various  kinds.  With  the  introduction  of 
Chinese  civilisation  they  added  to  this  catalogue 
the  superstitions  of  Confucianism  as  well  as  those 
of  Taoism,  and  when  Buddhism  arrived,  its  teach- 
ings accentuated  the  confusion  between  the  mun- 
dane and  the  supernal.  This  phase  of  Japanese 
ethics  merits  a  moment's  attention. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  first  professional 
fortune-teller  in  Japan  learned  his  art  in  Korea. 
The  truth  appears  to  be  that,  about  the  third 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  the  method  of  divi- 
nation anciently  practised  in  Japan  by  scorching 
the  bones  of  a  deer,  was  replaced  by  a  tortoise- 
shell-burning  process,  imported  from  Korea,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  the  marks  produced  by  the  fire 
ceased  to  be  arbitrarily  interpreted  by  the  diviner 
and  were  explained  by  the  aid  of  elaborate  dia- 
grams. In  either  case  the  soothsayer  had  to  pref- 
ace his  divination  by  several  days  of  supplication 
to  the  particular  deity  within  whose  province  the 
affair  lay,  and  had  to  abstain  for  some  period 
from  eating  or  touching  anything  unclean  in  a 
religious  sense.  Direct  revelations  from  heaven 
vouchsafed  after  long  fasting  and  meditation  in  a 
temple  or  shrine,  were  also  regarded  with  as 
much  reverential  faith  by  the  Japanese  as  by  the 
Jews  of  old  or  the  early  Christians.  This  method 
of  obtaining  transcendental  guidance  had  been  in 
vogue  for  centuries  before  the  introduction  of 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

Buddhism,  but  its  credit  was  greatly  enhanced  by 
the  latter,  for  the  Buddhist  priests  attributed  all 
their  important  acts  to  heavenly  inspiration.  The 
most  vital  affairs  of  State  were  regulated  by  these 
revelations.  Even  the  title  of  an  usurper  to  dis- 
place the  legitimate  line  of  emperors  was  thus 
determined.  Confucianism  with  its  Book  of 
Changes,  to  which  the  great  philosopher  had 
devoted  profoundest  study,  gave  a  new  impetus 
to  divination.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century  —  in  other  words,  at  the  very  time  when 
radical  reforms,  legislative,  administrative,  fiscal, 
and  social,  were  being  introduced  from  China, 
an  office  called  the  Bureau  of  the  Two  Principles 
was  organised  in  the  Department  of  Home  Affairs, 
and  placed  under  the  direction  of  six  diviners 
who  undertook  to  read  the  will  of  heaven  by 
reference  to  the  operations  of  the  male  and 
female  principles  of  nature  —  the  yo  (yang)  and 
the  in  (ying).  Faith  in  this  form  of  divination 
increased  constantly.  It  replaced  almost  com- 
pletely the  process  of  burning  tortoise-shell, 
which  ultimately  was  limited  to  religious  services 
held  in  the  Imperial  Court  or  at  the  great  Shinto 
shrine.  The  people,  of  course,  resorted  to  simpler 
methods  in  the  affairs  of  every  day.  Listening 
for  the  first  words  of  a  wayfarer  at  cross-roads 
or  beyond  the  gate  of  a  dwelling;  planting  a 
post,  approaching  it  with  steps  adapted  to  a  for- 
mula and  constructing  an  omen  from  the  word 
coincident  with  the  last  step;  raising  the  first 


JAPAN 

stone  found  on  the  wayside  and  calculating  its 
weight ;  finding  signs  in  water,  in  the  sounds  of 
music,  in  the  bubbles  of  the  rice-caldron,  —  these 
and  a  dozen  other  trivial  accidents  helped  men 
and  women  to  shirk  the  exercise  of  robust  judg- 
ment. The  Buddhist  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
chosis added  largely  to  the  mystery  of  things. 
People  now  learned  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead, 
which  had  always  been  accredited  with  divine 
influence,  might  be  present  in  their  midst  in 
some  unrecognisable  form.  The  ancestor  before 
whose  cenotaph  a  man  burned  incense  might  be 
watching  him  from  the  eyes  of  the  ox  that  had 
drawn  him  to  the  temple,  and  the  baying  of  a 
dog  at  the  fall  of  the  moon  might  be  a  voice 
from  the  grave  of  an  honoured  relative.  Mirac- 
ulous manifestations  began  to  be  generally  cred- 
ited. A  disentombed  skull  found  voice  to 
express  gratitude  for  favours  bestowed  on  it  in 
life.  The  mouth  of  a  man  who  insulted  a  reader 
of  the  sutras  was  suddenly  twisted  by  paralysis. 
A  local  headman,  levying  heavy  taxes  from  the 
people,  was  transformed  into  a  beast  of  burden. 
A  fisherman  who  threw  his  nets  with  merciless 
frequency,  fell  into  a  supernaturally  kindled  flame. 
A  man  who  overloaded  his  horse  was  beaten  to 
death  by  hailstones.  A  crab  became  the  means 
of  bringing  riches  to  its  liberator.  Multitudes 
of  such  tales  circulated  throughout  the  country. 
Even  an  Emperor  (Koken)  was  stricken  with 
sickness  for  desecrating  the  foundations  of  a 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

temple.  It  is  observable  that  the  ethical  teach- 
ing of  these  miracles  was  good,  however  destruc- 
tive their  effects  on  the  moral  fibre  of  the  nation. 
They  were  of  course  accompanied  by  an  under- 
growth of  minor  superstitions.  A  lover  sleeping 
with  his  robe  turned  inside  out,  would  certainly 
dream  of  the  object  of  his  affection.  A  man 
longed  for  by  another  or  destined  soon  to  enjoy 
a  happy  meeting,  found  the  string  of  his  under- 
garment loosen  automatically.  An  itching  eye- 
brow or  a  troublesome  nose  had  its  significance. 
A  knot  made  on  the  twig  of  a  tree  remained 
tight  or  came  untied  according  as  a  project  was 
to  succeed  or  fail.  The  house  of  a  person  who 
had  set  out  on  a  journey  must  not  be  swept,  nor 
must  hair  be  combed  there,  for  the  space  of  three 
days.  The  traveller  prayed  at  a  cross-way  or  on 
a  hill-top  raising  a  periapt  aloft  in  his  hands.  A 
voyage  by  sea  was  preceded  by  worship  of  the 
god  of  the  wind.  The  grass  of  forgetfulness 
(wasure-gusa,  the  Day  lily  )  was  carried  as  a  means 
of  burying  sad  thoughts  in  oblivion,  and  a  stum- 
bling horse  indicated  homesickness  on  the  part 
of  his  rider.  All  pure  white  animals  or  birds, 
a  black  fox,  a  forked  lotus  root  or  tree-branch,  — 
these  were  held  to  be  objects  of  the  best  omen. 
People  procuring  them  and  presenting  them  to 
the  palace  were  liberally  rewarded,  and  sometimes 
the  imperial  satisfaction  took  the  form  of  a 
general  amnesty  or  a  change  of  the  era's  title. 
With  the  growth  of  these  superstitions  faith 


12 


JAPAN 

in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  and  incantation  grew 
also.  From  the  welfare  of  the  humblest  subject 
to  the  safety  of  the  State,  everything  was  sup- 
posed to  be  obtainable  by  worship,  and  the 
priests  who  chaunted  litanies  and  performed  re- 
ligious rites  became  objects  of  profound  venera- 
tion. Every  chamber  in  the  Palace  was  open  to 
them.  So  long  as  Shinto  was  the  sole  creed  of 
the  nation,  men  did  not  trouble  themselves  much 
about  malevolent  spirits.  But  with  the  advent 
of  Buddhism,  preaching  its  many  hells  peopled 
by  cruel  demons,  people  learned  to  attribute  all 
the  ills  and  mischances  of  life  to  the  influence  of 
dead  enemies  endowed  with  demoniacal  attri- 
butes, or  to  supernatural  power  exercised  by 
the  living  through  the  medium  of  incantations. 
The  maleficent  spirits  were  supposed  to  be  al- 
ways on  the  watch  for  an  opportunity  to  work 
evil,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary  that  constant 
watch  should  be  kept  by  the  side  of  a  sick  per- 
son. Some  protection  was  obtained  by  observing 
certain  ceremonies  and  repeating  certain  formulas, 
but  the  intervention  of  a  priest  seemed  the  only 
complete  safeguard,  and  thus  the  intoning  of 
litanies  and  the  rolling  of  rosaries  came  to  be 
counted  much  more  efficacious  in  cases  of  illness 
than  the  services  of  a  physician.  Scarcely  any 
incident  of  every-day  life  failed  to  be  interpreted 
as  a  portent,  and  men  had  to  be  constantly  on 
the  watch  lest  by  neglecting  some  precaution 
they  should  cause  a  harmless  sign  to  be  perverted 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

into  an  omen  of  evil.  Naturally  these  disquiet- 
ing fantasies  had  the  effect  of  rendering  people 
nervous  and  timid.  Even  a  soldier  dreaded  to 
walk  alone  in  the  darkness.  The  feat  by  which 
Michinaga,  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  unscru- 
pulous of  the  Fujiwara  nobles,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  his  fame,  illustrates  this  craven  mood. 
At  a  reunion  of  princes  and  nobles  in  the  Palace 
of  the  Emperor  Kwazan  (985-987),  some  tales 
of  ghostly  appearances  having  been  recounted,  it 
was  proposed  that  the  listeners  should  exhibit 
their  courage  by  proceeding,  one  at  a  time,  to 
remote  parts  of  the  Palace.  The  three  Fujiwara 
brothers  volunteered  to  undertake  the  task,  but 
only  one  of  them,  Michinaga,  was  able  to 
achieve  it,  and  his  valour  won  universal  eulogy. 
Sensual  excesses,  which  were  without  limit  in 
the  Heian  epoch,  supplemented  and  strengthened 
this  ever-present  dread  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
and  of  evil,  so  that  idiocy  became  common  and 
the  span  of  life  in  the  upper  classes  was  shortened 
to  thirty  or  forty  years.  The  Emperor  Daigo 
(898-930)  actually  fell  into  a  dangerous  illness, 
owing  to  a  belief  that  he  was  pursued  by  the 
vengeance  of  a  loyal  minister,  Michizane,  whose 
unjust  punishment  he  had  sanctioned,  and  as  a 
protection  against  the  same  danger  his  baby  son, 
the  prince  imperial,  was  confined  day  and  night 
in  one  apartment  and  guarded  by  a  chosen  band 
of  soldiers  during  the  first  three  years  after  his 
birth.  When  the  renowned  Fujiwara  chief, 

179 


JAPAN 

Tokihira,  died,  men  said  that  he  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  the  spirit  of  this  same  Michizane, 
whose  disgrace  and  banishment  he  had  con- 
trived,1 and  every  misfortune  that  befell  a  con- 
spicuous family  was  ascribed  to  the  angry  ghost 
of  some  prince,  nobleman,  or  soldier  who  had 
been  done  to  death  in  the  numerous  political 
intrigues  of  the  era.  The  Emperor  Sanjo 
(1012-1015)  believed  that  his  calamity  of  partial 
blindness  was  caused  by  a  vengeful  spirit  which, 
assuming  the  form  of  a  winged  dog,  rode  on 
his  neck  and  flapped  its  pinions  over  his  eyes. 
Above  the  palace  of  another  sovereign  a  hideous 
creature,  half  monkey,  half  snake,  hovered  every 
night,  throwing  His  Majesty  into  convulsions ; 
and  it  was  counted  a  deed  of  magnificent  valour 
that  a  Minamoto  warrior  shot  an  arrow  into  the 
cloud  enshrouding  the  monster. 

The  Buddhist  priests  would  probably  have 
striven  earnestly  to  dispel  this  noxious  atmosphere 
of  superstition  had  it  not  contributed  so  much  to 
the  growth  of  their  own  importance.  At  the 
close  of  the  eighth  century  and  in  the  beginning 
of  the  ninth,  the  creed  found  two  propagandists 
of  the  highest  genius,  Dengyo  and  Kobo — 
otherwise  called  Saicho  and  Kokai,  —  the  first 
preachers  of  sectarian  Buddhism  in  Japan, 
Dengyo  being  the  founder  of  the  Yendai  sect  and 
Kobo  of  the  Shingon.  The  doctrines  of  these 
two  sects  presented  no  violent  contrasts.  They 

1  See  Appendix,  note  41. 

180 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

may  be  described  as  exoteric  and  esoteric  exegeses 
of  the  same  scripture ;  and  in  an  era  when  reli- 
gious tolerance  extended  to  the  blending  of  Shinto 
and  Buddhism,  distinctions  so  obscure  as  those 
between  the  Tendai  and  the  Shingon  sects  were  not 
likely  to  reflect  any  doubts  on  the  infallibility 
of  the  original  doctrine.  The  two  great  ex- 
pounders contributed  equally  to  the  spread  of 
Buddhism,  and  not  only  were  they  assisted  dur- 
ing their  life  and  after  their  death  by  zealots  of 
scarcely  inferior  calibre,  but  their  example  of 
ecstatic  devotion  exercised  an  ennobling  influence 
on  the  conduct  of  the  priests  in  general.  Long 
fasts,  years  of  asceticism  in  mountain  solitudes, 
and  even  self-inflicted  tortures  contributed,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  win  respect  for  the  faith,  and, 
on  the  other,  to  inculcate  the  importance  of 
abstinence  and  self-denial.  The  chief  temple  of 
the  Tendai  sect  (on  Hiyei-zan)  was  erected  on 
the  northeast  of  Kyoto  in  order  to  be  a  barrier 
against  the  evil  spirits  supposed  to  issue  con- 
stantly from  the  "  Demons'  Gate,"  which  was 
situated  in  that  quarter  of  the  firmament,  and  the 
priests,  apparently  without  any  exception,  spared 
no  pains  to  promote  a  belief  that  their  services 
were  essential  to  avert  calamity  or  insure  suc- 
cess. All  classes  of  the  nation  accepted  that  view. 
Religious  ceremonies  on  a  magnificent  scale  were 
constantly  held  at  the  Imperial  Court,  as  many  as 
a  thousand  priests  sometimes  officiating.  How- 
ever straitened  might  be  the  finances  of  the  State, 

181 


JAPAN 

funds  were  never  spared  for  these  purposes,  or 
for  the  building  of  splendid  temples.  The  Fuji- 
wara  family  behaved  as  though  it  considered  that 
its  fortunes  depended  solely  on  the  intervention 
of  the  priests,  and  the  example  thus  set  by  the 
greatest  nobles  in  the  land  did  not  fail  to  pro- 
duce its  effect  on  their  inferiors.  This  delirious 
devotion  to  Buddhism  reached  its  acme  at  the 
close  of  the  eleventh  century,  when,  during  a 
reign  of  only  thirteen  years,  the  Emperor  Shi- 
rakawa  caused  5,470  religious  pictures  to  be 
painted,  ordered  the  casting  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  statues  of  Buddha,  each  sixteen  feet 
high,  of  3,150  life-size  images  and  of  2,930 
smaller  idols,  and  constructed  twenty-one  large 
temples  and  446,630  religious  edifices  of  various 
kinds.  This  same  sovereign,  in  obedience  to 
the  Buddhist  commandment  against  taking  life, 
issued  an  edict  prohibiting  the  slaughter  of  any 
living  thing,  ordering  the  release  of  all  hawks, 
falcons,  and  other  caged  birds,  forbidding  the 
presentation  of  fish  to  the  Palace,  and  requiring 
the  destruction  of  all  fishing  nets,  which  last 
mandate  was  carried  out  in  8,800  cases.  It  be- 
came customary  also  to  have  services  performed 
at  temples  on  festive  occasions.  The  enormous 
expense  thus  entailed  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that,  when  a  man  reached  the  age  of  forty, 
he  purchased  a  further  span  of  life  and  happiness 
by  causing  masses  to  be  said  in  forty  temples;  at 
fifty  he  enlisted  the  services  of  fifty  temples  ;  and 

182 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

at  sixty  those  of  sixty.  Recovery  from  serious 
illness  being  generally  attributed  to  the  mercy  of 
Buddha,  men  began  to  receive  the  tonsure  as  an 
evidence  of  gratitude,  and  many  did  so  from  a 
mere  altruistic  conception,  namely,  that  if  a  per- 
son entered  the  priesthood,  the  future  salvation  of 
nine  families  related  to  him  would  be  secured. 

All  these  things  refuse  to  be  reconciled  with 
the  theory  that  the  religious  sentiment  is  deficient 
among  the  Japanese.  They  have  proved  them- 
selves as  accessible  to  supernatural  influences  as 
any  nation  known  to  history. 

Undoubtedly  Buddhism  contributed  immensely 
to  the  nation's  moral  and  material  progress.  But 
its  teachings  had  an  unwholesome  effect  in  the 
Heian  epoch.  The  character  of  the  Japanese 
underwent  very  marked  modification  during  the 
first  sixteen  centuries  of  their  history.  At  the 
time  of  their  arrival  as  invaders  they  were  hardy, 
fierce  people,  fond  of  fighting  and  ready  to  reduce 
to  slavery  every  one  that  they  overcame  by  force 
of  arms.  But  by  degrees  the  comparatively  genial 
climate  of  their  new  home,  its  soft  scenery,  the 
introduction  of  Chinese  civilisation  with  its  end- 
less codes  of  ceremony  and  etiquette,  and  the  spread 
of  a  literature  which  occupied  itself  chiefly  with 
tender  sentiments  and  scenic  charms,  produced 
enervating  effects.  The  rude  warriors  were  trans- 
formed, first  into  votaries  of  pleasure,  then  into 
hysterical  profligates,  and  finally  into  blase  pessi- 
mists. Buddhism  greatly  assisted  the  growth  of 

183 


JAPAN 

this  last  mood.  Partly  from  sincere  belief,  partly 
because  the  presence  of  a  prince  or  noble  in  a 
cloister  contributed  materially  to  its  wealth  and 
reputation,  the  priests  preached  the  doctrine  of 
abandoning  this  sinful  world  and  devoting  life 
to  heaven's  service.  Their  exhortations  prevailed 
even  with  emperors.1  When  a  great  personage 
took  the  tonsure,  he  presented  usually  a  sum  of 
money  and  often  a  tract  of  land  to  the  temple 
which  received  him,  and  the  priests  obtained  sim- 
ilar acknowledgment  for  preserving  and  praying 
before  the  cenotaphs  of  the  dead.2  The  temples 
were  not  merely  edifices  for  worship  like  Occi- 
dental churches.  In  the  vicinity  of  the  sacred 
structure  where  the  image  of  Buddha  was  en- 
shrined, there  stood  extensive  buildings  forming 
the  residences  of  the  priests,  and  containing  suites 
of  chambers  where  illustrious  parishioners  found 
accommodation  on  ceremonial  occasions.  The 
greater  the  prosperity  of  the  temple,  the  more 
numerous  and  magnificent  these  buildings,  so  that, 
in  some  cases,  a  monastery  constituted  a  little  town 
inhabited  by  thousands  of  monks.  Living  practi- 
cally beyond  the  pale  of  The  civil  authority,  these 
communities  of  priests  soon  began  to  form  mili- 
tary organisations,  which  were  used  at  first  for 
purposes  of  self-protection,  but  ultimately  for  all 
kinds  of  lawlessness  and  aggression.  Formidable 
bands  of  halberdiers  would  issue  from  one  monas- 
tery to  attack  another,  or  even  to  raid  and  burn 

7  See  Appendix,  note  42.  2  See  Appendix,  note  43. 

184 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

the  houses  of  their  lay  enemies,  and  if  the  Govern- 
ment attempted  to  check  them,  or  if  they  saw 
reason  to  complain  of  any  administrative  interfer- 
ence, they  would  march  in  a  body  to  the  Imperial 
Palace  or  to  the  residence  of  the  Prime  Minister, 
and  prefer  a  clamorous  protest.  On  such  occasions 
they  were  careful  to  carry  with  them  a  "  sacred 
car,"  or  a  "  divine  tree,"  l  for  the  presence  of  these 
emblems  secured  them  effectually  against  armed 
opposition.  If  the  authorities  declined  to  grant 
them  redress,  they  would  roll  their  thousands  of 
rosaries  between  the  palms  of  their  hands  with 
frenzied  vehemence,  at  the  same  time  loudly 
invoking  the  curses  of  heaven  and  the  pains  of  the 
nethermost  hell  on  any  one,  however  exalted  his 
rank,  who  ventured  to  oppose  the  will  of  Buddha. 
Even  the  Emperor  prostrated  himself  before  this 
multitudinous  imprecation  and  conceded  every- 
thing demanded  by  the  suppliants.  It  might  be 
supposed  that  such  acts  would  have  discredited 
Buddhism  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation.  But  the 
priests  never  raised  their  hand  against  the  people. 
Their  feuds  were  with  the  usurping  aristocrats, 
and  especially  with  the  military  class  ;  for  the 
latter,  as  the  Heian  epoch  wore  to  its  close,  be- 
gan to  grasp  the  administrative  power  and  to 
exercise  it  in  a  manner  subversive  of  much  of  the 
progress  with  which  Buddhism  had  been  closely 
associated  from  the  time  of  its  advent. 

In  spite  of  the   vogue  acquired  by  Buddhism, 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  44. 

:85 


JAPAN 

and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  had  apparently 
absorbed  Shinto,  the  latter  retained  its  hold  on  the 
heart  of  the  nation,  and  its  ceremonials  continued 
to  be  scrupulously  observed  in  the  Imperial  Court. 
Buddhist  priests  were  strictly  excluded  from  the 
great  rites  of  the  indigenous  creed.  More  extrav- 
agant than  ever  were  the  restrictions  imposed  by 
the  canon  of  purity,  which,  with  ancestor-worship, 
may  be  called  the  basis  of  Shinto.  Defilement, 
originally  attributed  only  to  uncleanliness  or  to 
the  commission  of  sin,  was  extended  in  this  age 
of  superstition  to  many  inevitable  incidents  of 
daily  life  —  such  as  deaths,  births,1  burials,  in 
memoriam  ceremonies,  the  eating  of  flesh,  the 
tasting  of  anything  acid,  the  application  of  the 
moxa,  contact  with  disease  and  so  on.  To  have 
been  contaminated  in  any  of  these  ways  disqual- 
ified a  man  for  association  with  his  friends  and  for 
the  discharge  of  his  official  duties,  during  a  period 
of  varying  duration.  There  was  an  elaborate  chain 
of  vicarious  defilement.  If,  A  being  defiled,  B 
happened  to  sit  where  A  had  sat,  then  B  and  all 
his  family  incurred  defilement ;  and  if,  thereafter, 
C  went  into  B's  residence,  then  C  too  became 
defiled,  but  not  the  members  of  his  family.  If, 
however,  the  process  were  reversed  by  B  going 
into  C's  house,  then  the  taint  fell  upon  the  whole 
of  C's  family.  At  C  the  chain  ended:  D  might 
enter  C's  house  with  impunity.2  In  the  observance 
of  these  rules  most  unnatural  violence  was  done 

1  See  Appendix,  note  45.  2  See  Appendix,  note  46. 

T86 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

to  the  instinct  of  charity.  Servants  attacked  by 
serious  maladies  were  sometimes  shut  into  a  se- 
cluded building  and  left  to  die  without  succour, 
or  were  even  carried  to  an  unfrequented  place  and 
abandoned  to  their  fate.  A  man  having  driven 
his  sick  brother  from  his  house,  the  patient,  fail- 
ing to  obtain  admittance  to  the  residence  of  any 
friend,  was  ultimately  transported  to  the  crema- 
tion ground,  where  he  lay  till  death  came ;  and 
an  apparently  credible  record  tells  how  the  corpse 
of  a  mendicant  friar  lay  unburied  for  a  month  in 
the  belfry  of  a  temple,  neither  priests  nor  parish- 
ioners venturing  to  incur  defilement  by  removing 
the  body.  Such  indifference  to  the  prompting 
of  mercy  is  strange  to  Japanese  character.  It 
was  an  artificial  mood  bred  of  the  superstitious 
vapours  that  obscured  men's  moral  vision  in  that 
singular  age. 

The  effeminacy  of  the  Court  nobles  was  as  great 
as  their  superstition,  and  their  eccentricities  sug- 
gest that  sensual  indulgence  had  reduced  them 
to  a  state  of  imbecility.  Tadahira,  the  younger 
brother  of  Tokihira,  the  great  Fujiwara  chief, 
painted  a  cuckoo  on  his  fan,  and  imitated  the 
cry  of  the  bird  whenever  he  opened  the  fan.  At 
the  time  when  he  distinguished  himself  by  these 
callow  antics  he  held  high  military  rank.  An- 
other of  the  Fujiwara  nobles  (Yasutada)  made  a 
habit  of  carrying  hot  rice-dumplings  in  the  bosom 
of  his  garment,  for  the  sake  of  their  warmth,  and 
throwing  them  away  when  they  cooled,  for  the 

187 


JAPAN 

sake  of  displaying  his  opulence.  To  play  the 
samisen  l  was  the  accomplishment  of  a  legislator ; 
to  turn  a  couplet  the  proof  of  a  statesman's  ca- 
pacity. It  is  impossible  to  recognise  the  Japanese 
of  later  eras  in  some  of  the  hysterical  creatures 
with  whom  history  peoples  the  Heian  Court. 
The  stoical  samurai,  whose  first  rule  of  conduct 
was  imperturbability  whatever  gusts  of  passion 
assailed  him,  had  no  representative  among  these 
voluptuaries  of  the  capital :  they  were  as  emo- 
tional as  the  weakest  of  women.  The  disap- 
pointment of  not  meeting  his  lover,  or  of  brief 
separation  from  her,  produced  an  access  of  weep- 
ing that  drove  a  man  to  his  couch,  and  no  one 
thought  shame  of  shedding  floods  of  idle  tears 
in  the  presence  of  verdant  spring  and  solemn 
autumn,  or  of  sobbing  in  unison  with  the  cricket's 
chirp  and  the  stag's  cry.  At  no  time  in  the  na- 
tion's story  did  wifely  fidelity  fall  so  low  in  public 
esteem.  Widows  took  a  second  or  a  third  husband 
without  compunction.  Divorced  women  did  not 
forfeit  their  eligibility  for  new  ties.  Wives  had 
often  two  or  three  "  protectors."  Husbands  made 
a  boast  of  the  number  of  mistresses  they  supported. 
A  wife  was  put  away  or  a  mistress  deserted  in  the 
ordinary  routine  of  daily  doings.  An  extraordinary 
and  scarcely  comprehensible  mania  for  poetical 
composition  contributed  to  this  immorality.  It 
would  have  been  almost  a  sacrilege  to  limit  the 
success  of  a  gracefully  turned  couplet.  Men  and 

1  See  Appendix,  note  47. 

188 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

women  surrendered  themselves  to  the  poetical  de- 
lirium, so  that  a  dainty  thought  deftly  expressed 
came  to  be  counted  a  sufficient  price  for  a  lady's 
virtue.  Imperial  concubines  received  the  ad- 
dresses of  court  officials.  To  rob  a  man  of  his 
wife  did  not  shock  society.  Brothers  and  cousins 
suffered  such  thefts  at  each  other's  hands.  Fuji- 
wara  no  Tokihira,  regent  and  prime  minister,  pur- 
chased his  uncle's  wife.  Mothers  received  the 
embraces  of  their  step-sons.  Such  vices  among 
the  patrician  classes  found  a  rude  reflection  in 
the  conduct  of  the  plebeians.  Women  were 
expected,  or  compelled,  to  be  facile  under  all 
circumstances,  and  in  the  general  extermination 
of  shame  Buddhist  priests  took  their  part  by 
openly  violating  their  vows  of  celibacy  or 
abandoning  the  cowl  for  the  sake  of  pursuing 
an  illicit  intrigue. 

This  immorality  was  not  accompanied  by 
immodesty.  On  the  contrary,  social  punctilio 
exacted  the  closest  observance.  A  love  affair 
might  be  notorious,  but  it  must  never  be  scan- 
dalous or  obtrusive.  Even  the  preliminaries  of 
marriage  consisted  often  in  an  interchange  of 
letters  and  poems  rather  than  in  meetings  or 
conversations.  A  man  estimated  the  conjugal 
qualities  of  a  young  lady  by  her  skill  in  finding 
scholarly  similes  and  her  perception  of  the  cadence 
of  words.  If,  indeed,  a  woman  was  so  fortunate 
as  to  acquire  a  reputation  for  learning,  she  pos- 
sessed a  certificate  of  universal  virtue  and  amia- 

189 


JAPAN 

bility.  Therefore  polite  society  tabooed  every 
form  of  wooing  more  demonstrative  than  the  use 
of  pen  and  paper.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  de- 
corum of  the  aristocratic  lady.  She  hid  her  de- 
pravity behind  a  mask  of  demureness.  To  allow 
her  face  to  be  seen  in  public  or  her  voice  to  be  heard 
by  a  stranger  was  a  shocking  solecism.  If  she 
had  not  a  carriage  to  ride  abroad,  she  covered  her 
face  with  a  hood.  She  never  addressed  a  man  of 
the  lower  orders  except  through  a  servant,  and 
even  then  did  not  permit  him  to  ascend  to  the 
level  where  she  sat.  With  one  of  a  better,  though 
still  inferior,  grade  she  conversed  directly,  divided 
from  him,  however,  by  a  paper  sliding-door;  and 
the  next  step  of  condescension  was  to  talk  from 
behind  a  screen,  hiding  her  face  with  a  fan.  Even 
her  own  step-brother  must  not  be  met  face  to 
face. 

The  pastimes  of  the  upper  classes  reached  their 
highest  point  of  elaboration  in  this  era.  At  the 
head  of  all  stood  the  game  of  competitive-couplet 
making  (uta-aivase).  The  manner  of  this  pursuit, 
as  practised  in  the  Nara  epoch,  has  already  been 
briefly  described.  New  importance  was  given  to 
it  by  the  Empress  Koko,  at  the  close  of  the  ninth 
century.  In  her  Palace  of  Horikawa  she  organ- 
ised poem  parties  on  an  unprecedented  scale. 
The  proprieties  were  strictly  observed.  On  one 
side  of  the  room  the  ladies  were  marshalled,  on 
the  other  the  men,  and  a  genuine  contest  of  lit- 
erary skill  ensued,  every  guest  being  required  to 

190 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

compose  a  stanza  on  a  given  subject.  Sometimes 
Chinese  poetic  models  were  followed ;  sometimes 
Japanese  ;  sometimes  both.  But  it  is  not  to  be 
understood  that  the  rhyming  terminals  of  Chinese 
verse  formed  at  any  time  a  visible  feature  of 
Japanese  poetical  composition.  Here,  indeed,  is 
exposed  one  of  the  most  irrational  conceits  that 
the  literature  of  any  country  furnishes.  Many  of 
the  Japanese  poetasters  of  the  Heian  era  took 
infinite  pains  to  compose  couplets  which,  they 
supposed,  would  satisfy  the  rhyming  requirements 
of  Chinese  verse  if  the  Chinese  sounds  of  the 
ideographs  were  accurately  given  and  Chinese 
syntactical  order  duly  preserved.  But  the  true 
Chinese  pronunciation  of  an  ideograph  was  never 
known  in  Japan,  and  the  Chinese  order  of  words 
had  to  be  changed  to  make  a  sentence  intelligible 
to  Japanese  ears.  Hence  a  verselet  laboriously 
constructed  according  to  the  Chinese  laws,  lost 
its  rhyming  terminals  altogether  when  the  ideo- 
graphs received  their  true  pronunciation,  and,  in 
fact,  retained  nothing  of  its  original  character 
except  the  sense.  To  expect  that  an  English 
verbatim  translation  of  the  Bucolics  of  Virgil 
must  fall  naturally  into  hexameters  and  pentam- 
eters, were  not  more  reasonable  than  to  antici- 
pate that  a  Japanese  rendering  of  a  Chinese 
couplet  should  preserve  the  rhyme  and  metre  of 
the  Chinese  original.  It  was  characteristic  of 
the  silly  artificialism  of  the  time  that  men's  ener- 
gies should  be  absorbed  in  the  manufacture  of 

191 


JAPAN 

such  deformities.  The  genuine  Japanese  style 
of  couplet  was  chiefly  in  vogue,  however,  though 
always  with  increasing  loss  of  the  old  vigour  of 
thought,  and  increasing  reliance  on  tricks  of  dic- 
tion and  trivialities  of  conception.  Several  of 
these  poem-composing  parties  became  historical 
events,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  couplets 
produced,  but  also  because  of  the  magnificence 
and  tastefulness  of  the  entertainments.  Often  a 
feature  of  the  arrangements  was  a  display  of  choice 
flowering  plants  which  served  to  inspire  the  poet- 
asters and  to  reward  the  most  successful.  Loose 
as  were  the  morals  of  the  time,  the  language  of 
these  verses  was  seldom  indelicate.  But  in  the 
closing  days  of  the  Heian  epoch,  when  luxury 
and  self-indulgence  reached  their  extreme  point, 
a  new  pastime  was  introduced,  —  the  competi- 
tive composition  of  love-letters.  In  these  all 
phases  of  carnal  affection  were  depicted  or  sug- 
gested by  the  aid  of  refined  and  scholarly 
phraseology.1  Nevertheless,  in  everything  that 
concerned  outward  appearance,  the  conventions 
of  decorum  were  observed  with  the  utmost  strict- 
ness in  all  Japanese  polite  pastimes  at  what- 
ever era.  The  costumes  and  customs  of  an 
Occidental  ball-room  in  the  nineteenth  century 
would  have  seemed  altogether  shocking  to 
mediaeval  Japanese. 

Gathering  plants  of  the  sweet-flag  in  June  and 
comparing  the  length  of  their  roots ;  writing  verses 

1  See  Appendix,  note  48. 

192 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

or  drawing  pictures  on  fans  supplied  by  the  host ; 
composing  poetic  conundrums;  fitting  together  the 
valves  of  shells  on  the  inside  of  which  poems  were 
inscribed  and  decorative  designs  painted  ;  burning 
incense,  an  amusement  so  elaborate  as  to  amount 
to  a  science,  its  paraphernalia  of  the  most  costly 
and  beautiful  description ;  playing  chess  or  go ; 
reconstructing  celebrated  stanzas  from  one  or 
two  clue  words ;  writing  lists  of  ideographs  with 
a  common  part ;  *  fan  lotteries ;  foot-ball  and 
hawking,  —  these  were  the  chief  amusements  of 
the  aristocrats  in  the  Heian  epoch.  Betting  was 
added  to  give  zest  to  the  games.  But  the  stakes 
did  not  take  the  form  of  money  :  a  work  of  art, 
a  roll  of  brocade,  a  house,  a  feast,  a  horse,  and  so 
on  were  objects  that  a  gentleman  might  play  for, 
though  gold  or  silver  as  media  of  exchange  must 
not  enter  his  thoughts.  Japanese  foot-ball  —  de- 
rived originally  from  China  —  bore  no  resemblance 
to  the  rough-and-tumble  contests  of  the  Occident. 
It  was  simply  the  art  of  kicking  a  ball  high  and 
keeping  it  continuously  off  the  ground.  A  certain 
Narimichi,  whose  official  position  corresponded 
to  that  of  a  Minister  of  State,  gained  undying  fame 
by  his  skill  in  this  amusement.  After  devoting  a 
considerable  part  of  seven  thousand  consecutive 
days  to  the  practice  of  the  art,  rising  even  from 
his  sick-bed  for  the  purpose,  he  attained  such 
lightness  and  deftness  of  foot  that,  while  kicking 
the  ball,  he  traversed  the  shoulders  of  a  row  of 

1  See  Appendix,  note  49. 

'3  193 


JAPAN 

servitors,  including  a  tonsured  priest,  and  the  men 
thus  trodden  on  declared  that  they  had  felt  nothing 
more  than  a  hawk  hopping  along  their  backs, 
the  priest  saying  that  for  his  part  it  had  seemed 
simply  as  though  some  one  had  put  a  hat  on 
his  bald  pate.  That  is  the  historical  record! 
The  patience  that  supported  this  statesman 
through  nineteen  years  of  perpetual  foot-ball 
practice,  and  the  terms  used  by  the  annalists  to 
describe  his  achievements,  are  equally  suggestive 
of  the  mood  of  the  era. 

Love  for  flowers,  which  amounts  almost  to  a  pas- 
sion in  Japan,  had  declared  itself  long  before  the 
time  now  under  review,  but,  like  everything  else, 
it  assumed  an  extravagant  character  in  that  epoch. 
Large  trees  were  completely  covered  with  artificial 
blossoms  of  the  plum  or  the  cherry  to  recall  the 
spring,  ancient  pines  overhanging  miniature  lakes 
were  festooned  with  wistaria  blooms  in  autumn, 
snow  was  piled  in  vast  heaps  so  as  to  preserve 
some  traces  of  it  under  sunny  skies.  To  be  un- 
natural, abnormal,  unreasonable,  was  to  possess  a 
special  charm.  One  of  the  manias  of  the  time 
was  to  keep  pet  dogs  and  cats.  The  annals  speak 
of  the  "  delightful  voice  and  winning  ways  "  of 
the  cat,  and  tell  how  not  only  were  cats  and  dogs 
called  by  human  beings'  names,  but  official  titles 
also  were  bestowed  on  them,  and  religious  ser- 
vices were  performed  when  they  died.  A  pet  cat 
in  the  Palace  bore  kittens  in  the  year  999,  where- 
upon the  Emperor  and  the  Ministers  of  State  sent 

194 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

presents  appropriate  to  occasions  of  childbirth, 
and  a  Court  lady  was  appointed  to  nurse  the  kit- 
tens. This  incident  provoked  ridicule  among 
the  public,  but  did  not  seem  inconsistent  with 
the  ways  of  thj  Court. 


195 


Chapter  VII 

THE   HEIAN   EPOCH  (Continued) 

(End  of  the   Eighth   to  the  Middle  of  the    Twelfth    Century) 

IT  was  in  this  epoch  that  Japanese  civilisa- 
tion assumed  many  of  the  external  features 
so  much  and  so  justly  admired  by  foreigners 
in  modern  times.  The  nation's  profound 
appreciation  of  natural  beauties  asserted  itself  in 
the  embellishment  of  the  new  capital,  though 
the  prim  mathematical  regularity  of  the  city's 
Chinese  plan  might  well  have  deterred  any  exer- 
cise of  Japanese  taste,  which  abhors  stiffness  and 
formality.  Along  the  sides  of  the  streets  willows 
and  cherries  were  planted.  Limpid  streams 
flowed  from  green  hills  that  held  the  city  in 
their  embrace.  Every  mansion  had  its  park, 
and  in  every  park  the  four  seasons  found  well- 
devised  opportunities  for  the  display  of  their 
special  charms.  From  temples  whose  colossal 
roofs  looked  down  upon  the  dwellings  of  their 
parishioners,  the  sweet  and  sonorous  voices  of 
mighty  bells  tolled  the  hours,  and  the  sound  of 
chaunted  litanies  summoned  people  to  bow  be- 
fore altars  resplendent  with  gold  and  silver. 
Each  month  brought  an  opportunity  for  the  city 

196 


THE  HEIAN  EPOCH 
to  make  holiday.  Sometimes  people  flocked  to 
watch  the  spring  sun  rise  above  the  cherry- 
blossoms  at  Sagano ;  sometimes  they  went  to  see 
autumn  moonlight  bathe  the  maples  by  the 
Oi-gawa.  Sometimes  they  lavished  great  sums 
on  brilliant  festivals  in  honour  of  the  numerous 
deities,  whose  places  of  worship  had  now  become 
comparatively  magnificent  in  architectural  pro- 
portions and  interior  decoration.  Many  of  the 
graces  that  distinguished  all  phases  of  Japanese 
mediaeval  life  and  all  branches  of  Japanese 
mediaeval  art  were  still  wanting,  or  only  present 
in  embryo,  the  models  and  fashions  imported 
wholesale  from  China  not  having  yet  been 
purged  of  their  formal  conventionalism.  But 
the  nation  had  turned  its  back  finally  on  every- 
thing rude  and  archaic,  and  taken  a  long  stride 
toward  the  heights  of  refinement  it  ultimately 
reached. 

Architectural  designs  were  obtained  in  the 
main  from  China.  During  the  Nara  epoch 
the  construction  of  temples  had  chiefly  occupied 
attention,  but  in  the  Heian  era  the  palaces  of 
the  sovereign  and  the  mansions  of  ministers  and 
nobles  were  built  on  a  scale  of  unprecedented 
grandeur.  It  is  true  that  all  the  structures  of 
the  time  had  the  defect  of  a  box-like  appear- 
ance. Massive,  towering  roofs,  which  impart 
an  air  of  stateliness  even  to  a  wooden  building 
and  yet,  by  their  graceful  curves,  avoid  any  sug- 
gestion of  ponderosity,  were  still  confined  to 

197 


JAPAN 

Buddhist  edifices.  The  architect  of  private 
dwellings  attached  more  importance  to  satin- 
surfaced  boards  and  careful  joinery  than  to  any 
appearance  of  strength  or  solidity.  Spaciousness 
and  elegance,  however,  were  not  altogether  want- 
ing. The  main  gate  of  the  Palace  was  flanked 
on  either  side  by  guard-houses  having  a  forest  of 
pagoda-like  minarets,  which  served  as  watch- 
towers,  and  there  stood  on  its  east  and  west,  in- 
side, two  buildings,  where  officials  assembled 
before  proceeding  to  the  place  of  audience, 
which  consisted  of  twelve  halls,  symmetrically 
disposed  and  each  having  its  own  status.  Be- 
yond these  there  was  the  "  hall  of  pleasure  and 
plenty,"  where  social  entertainments  were  held ; 
the  "  hall  of  the  word  of  truth  "  for  rites  of  wor- 
ship ;  the  "  hall  of  military  virtue  "  for  soldierly 
exercises  ;  the  "  hall  of  central  tranquillisation  " 
for  venerating  the  spirits  of  the  imperial  ances- 
tors ;  and,  finally,  the  residence  of  the  sovereign, 
comprising  sixteen  halls  and  five  galleries.1  At 
the  entrance  to  the  principal  of  these  sixteen 
halls  —  the  Shishinden  or  "  purple  hall  of  the 
north  star "  —  there  were  planted  a  cherry-tree 
and  an  orange-tree,  the  "  guardian  cherry  of  the 
left "  and  the  "  guardian  orange  of  the  right." 
The  floor  of  all  these  edifices  was  raised  some  six 
feet  above  the  ground,  and  was  reached  by  flights 
of  wooden  steps  placed  at  frequent  intervals. 
The  general  plan  excepted,  there  was  little  to 

1  See  Appendix,  note  50. 

198 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

distinguish  the  Imperial  Palace  from  the  man- 
sion of  a  great  nobleman  or  minister  of  State. 
The  latter  consisted  of  a  principal  hall,  where 
the  master  of  the  house  lived,  ate,  and  slept  — 
there  being  no  practically  recognised  distinctions 
of  dining-room,  sitting-room  and  bedroom,  — 
and  of  three  suites  of  chambers,  disposed  on  the 
north,  the  east,  and  the  west  of  the  principal  hall. 
In  the  northern  suite  the  lady  of  the  house 
dwelt,1  the  eastern  and  western  suites  being  al- 
lotted to  the  other  members  of  the  family.  It 
was  essential  that  no  room  should  face  the  north, 
lest  supernal  influences  of  malign  tendency  should 
pervade  the  household.  Corridors  joined  the 
principal  hall  to  the  subordinate  edifices,  for  as 
yet  the  idea  had  not  been  conceived  of  having 
more  than  one  chamber  under  the  same  roof. 

In  front  of  this  row  of  linked  buildings  a  garden 
was  laid  out.  Much  care  and  sometimes  large 
sums  of  money  were  lavished  on  its  construction. 
But  the  general  plan  was  almost  uniform.  Little 
of  the  great  variety  of  landscape,  breadth  of 
design,  and  subtlety  of  arrangement  that  ulti- 
mately distinguished  Japanese  parks  could  be 
seen  in  the  gardens  of  the  Heian  epoch.  Any 
one  who  has  made  a  study  of  Chinese  paintings 
must  have  recognised  that  they  fall  into  one  of 
two  broad  categories,  literary  pictures  and  artistic 
pictures.  The  former  are  to  the  latter  what 
the  stiff  formality  of  the  square  ideograph  is  to 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  51. 

199 


JAPAN 

the  graceful  softness  of  the  cursive  script.  In  the 
literary  picture,  the  rocks  assume  fantastic  shapes ; 
the  cliffs  marshal  themselves  in  strange,  unnatural 
phalanxes ;  the  trees,  gnarled  and  distorted,  grow 
in  perplexing  places,  and  the  whole  scene  suggests 
rigid  irregularity  and  conventional  quaintness. 
Something  of  that  was  visible  in  the  gardens  of 
the  Heian  time.  The  general  design  had  only 
one  orthodox  type.  A  lake,  not  ungracefully 
shaped,  occupied  the  centre,  surrounding  an  arti- 
ficial island  to  which  wooden  bridges  gave  access. 
Trees  of  various  kinds,  notably  pines,  trained  with 
infinite  patience  into  strange  curves  of  stem  and 
wayward  disposition  of  branch,  overhung  the  lake, 
presenting  strong  contrasts  of  foliage.  A  water- 
fall, or  the  semblance  of  one  if  the  reality  could 
not  be  achieved,  fed  the  lake  from  the  south,  and 
on  its  eastern  and  western  shores,  respectively, 
stood  an  "  angling  grotto  "  and  a  "  hermitage  of 
spring  waters,"  whither  the  family  and  their 
friends  repaired  on  summer  evenings,  gaining  ac- 
cess to  these  buildings  by  corridors  which  formed 
the  boundaries  of  the  garden  and  were  recessed 
at  intervals  by  waiting-rooms  for  domestics  and 
guards.  In  the  most  orthodox  park  a  limpid 
stream  flowed,  with  ribbon-like  windings,  from 
the  row  of  buildings  to  the  eastern  and  western 
sides  of  the  lake,  and  was  spanned  here  and  there 
by  bridges  of  varied  form.  Round  the  margin 
of  the  lake  and  at  the  feet  of  the  "  angling  grotto  " 
lay  rocks  of  many  hues,  beaten  into  fantastic 

200 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

shapes  by  centuries  of  collision  with  rushing 
waters.  The  arrangement  of  these  rocks  did  not 
yet  suggest  the  complete  concealment  of  art  which 
was  attained  in  later  ages.  Although  the  great 
painter,  Kose  no  Kanaoka  (850-890),  whose  per- 
ception of  the  glories  of  decorative  art  was  almost 
a  revelation,  devoted  his  genius  to  the  planning 
of  parks  and  rockeries,  his  designs  did  not  break 
away  altogether  from  the  hard  stiff  style  of  the 
Chinese  horticulturists,  nor  give  much  promise 
of  the  delightfully  natural  originality  that  dis- 
tinguished the  work  of  his  successors  in  subse- 
quent eras.  Nevertheless  he  certainly  showed  his 
countrymen  that  the  Chinese  "  garden  of  the 
sacred  fountain  "  (shinsen-yen},  which  they  had 
hitherto  regarded  as  an  inviolable  model,  might 
be  replaced  by  other  conceptions,  and  within  the 
two  centuries  immediately  following  his  death, 
Kyoto  was  enriched  with  a  number  of  detached 
palaces  and  noblemen's  villas  sufficiently  grand 
and  beautiful  to  be  recorded  in  the  pages  of  his- 
tory. Of  these  the  most  famous  was  the  "  tiled 
hall  "  (Kawara-in]  of  the  Minamoto  chief,  Toru  ; 
so  famous,  indeed,  that  its  owner  received  the 
pseudonym  of  the  "  tyled  first-minister"  (Kawara- 
no-Sadaijin}.  This  villa  has  a  special  interest  be- 
cause its  park  showed  the  first  definite  attempt  to 
reproduce  in  miniature  one  of  the  country's  most 
celebrated  scenic  gems,  the  "  salt-shore "  (shio- 
hama]  of  the  province  of  Mutsu.  Fidelity  of  imi- 
tation was  carried  to  the  extent  of  boiling  down 

2OI 


JAPAN 

eight  hundred  gallons  of  sea-water  daily,  and  put- 
ting the  salt  into  the  park  lake  so  that  the  traces 
of  its  water  might  be  realistically  briny.  Kyoto 
had  no  less  than  ten  "  detached  palaces  "  by  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  on  days  of 
festival  their  western  gates  were  thrown  open  for 
the  admission  of  all  visitors  without  distinction 
of  rank.  But  it  did  not  occur  to  any  annalist  or 
writer  of  the  era  to  pen  detailed  descriptions  of 
these  buildings  or  their  surroundings.  All  that 
can  be  certainly  affirmed  is  that  nature  in  her 
normal  aspects  began  at  this  time  to  be  taken  as 
the  best  guide  by  planners  of  parks  and  gardens. 

The  area  occupied  by  the  buildings  and  the 
park  was  enclosed,  in  the  case  of  a  princely  or 
noble  mansion,  by  a  high  earthen  wall  having  a 
fosse  at  its  foot ;  but  people  of  inferior  rank  had 
to  be  content  with  a  wooden  fence.  Social  status 
influenced  the  form  of  the  principal  entrance-gate 
also.  The  "  four-footed  gate,"  that  is  to  say,  a 
two-leaved  gate  having  a  roof  supported  by  four 
pillars,  was  the  most  aristocratic  ;  a  "  two-footed  " 
gate,  still  with  two  leaves,  came  next  in  order  of 
respectability,  and  a  postern  was  the  humblest 
of  all. 

The  interior  arrangement  and  furniture  of  an 
aristocrat's  mansion  showed  much  refinement  in 
this  era,  though  the  architect  suffered  himself  to 
be  trammelled  by  rules  which  he  afterwards  vio- 
lated with  advantage.  The  principal  hall  —  dis- 
tinguished externally  from  the  minor  edifices  by 

202 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

having  a  four-faced  roof  without  gables,  whereas 
they  had  roofs  of  only  two  faces  with  gables  at 
the  ends  —  was  usually  of  the  same  dimensions, 
42  feet  square.  Its  centre  was  occupied  by  a 
"  parent  chamber,"  30  feet  square,  around  which 
ran  an  ambulatory  (hisashi}  and  a  veranda  (yen- 
gawa),  each  6  feet  wide.  The  "  mother  cham- 
ber "  and  the  ambulatory  were  ceiled,  sometimes 
with  interlacing  strips  of  bark  or  broad  laths,  so 
as  to  produce  a  plaited  effect ;  sometimes  with 
plain  boards.  The  veranda  had  no  ceiling. 
Sliding  doors,  a  characteristic  feature  of  modern 
Japanese  houses,  had  not  yet  come  into  use,  and 
no  means  were  provided  for  closing  the  veranda, 
so  that,  at  night,  the  space  included  in  the 
"  mother  chamber "  and  the  ambulatory  was 
alone  habitable.  The  ambulatory,  however,  was 
surrounded  by  a  wall  of  latticed  timber  or  plain 
boards,  the  lower  half  of  which  could  be  removed 
altogether,  whereas  the  upper  half,  being  sus- 
pended from  hinges,  could  be  swung  upward  and 
outward.  It  was  thus  possible  to  regulate  the 
amount  of  light  and  air  admitted.  Privacy  was 
obtainable  by  hanging  blinds  of  split  bamboo  in 
the  place  of  the  latticed  wall,  and  communica- 
tion from  the  ambulatory  to  the  veranda  was  by 
doors,  three  on  each  side  of  the  room,  opening 
outward.  As  for  the  "  mother  chamber,"  it  was 
separated  from  the  ambulatory  by  similar  bamboo 
blinds,  with  silk  cords  for  raising  or  lowering 
them,  or  by  curtains.  Round  the  outer  edge  of 

203 


JAPAN 

the  veranda  ran  a  railing,  broken  at  three  places 
to  give  access  to  wooden  steps  by  which  the 
garden  was  reached,  and  the  main  entrance  had 
a  porch  to  shelter  palanquins  and  ox-carriages. 

Such  was  the  general  scheme  of  all  aristocratic 
dwellings.  It  was  derived  in  great  part  from  the 
plan  of  Buddhist  temples.  The  idea  of  dividing 
the  interior  space  into  several  rooms  had  not  yet 
been  conceived.  Neither  was  the  floor  covered 
with  thick  rectangular  mats  of  uniform  size,  fit- 
ting together  so  exactly  as  to  form  a  perfectly 
level  surface.  That  extensive  use  of  tatami,  as 
this  essentially  Japanese  kind  of  mat  is  called, 
came  into  fashion  at  a  later  period.  In  the 
Heian  epoch  floors  were  boarded,  mats  being 
sometimes  laid  in  a  limited  part  of  the  room 
only,  and  always  in  the  space  which  served  for 
a  bed.  The  aristocratic  sleeping-place  of  the 
time  was  a  species  of  movable  matted  dais.  Its 
sides  were  lacquered,  and  posts  rose  from  each 
corner  to  support  a  canopy  and  curtains  of  silk 
and  fine  gauze,  —  a  mosquito  net  in  fact.  This 
drapery  was  held  in  place  round  the  base  of  the 
dais  by  means  of  weights  in  the  form  of  Dogs  of 
Fo,  chiselled  in  bronze  or  silver,  and  the  mats 
had  broad  borders  of  brocade  for  patrician  dwell- 
ings and  of  coarse  cotton  cloth  for  humbler  folks. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  epoch  it  became  cus- 
tomary to  cover  the  floors  entirely  with  mats,1 
especially  in  rooms  reserved  for  the  habitation  of 

1  See  Appendix,   note  52. 

204 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

women,  and  the  lattice-work  panels  and  hinged 
doors  surrounding  the  "  parent  chamber "  were 
replaced  by  sliding  doors  which,  being  mere 
skeletons  of  interlacing  ribs  covered  with  thin 
white  silk,1  acted  like  windows  for  admitting 
light.  Then,  also,  the  partitioning  of  wide  in- 
terior spaces  into  several  rooms  began  to  be  prac- 
tised, and  the  partitioning  was  effected  by  means 
of  sliding  doors  similar  to  those  mentioned  above, 
or  covered  with  thicker  paper  which  now  be- 
gan to  offer  a  field  for  the  brush  of  decorative 
artists.  As  years  passed  and  as  the  scale  of  living 
grew  more  and  more  luxurious  in  Kyoto,  the 
dimensions  of  great  noblemen's  mansions  became 
extravagant,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century  an  imperial  edict  limited  the  size  of  a 
house  to  two  hundred  and  forty  yards  square,  at 
the  same  time  imposing  other  restrictions  as  to 
the  materials  of  roofs  and  walls.  These  vetoes 
proved  quite  ineffective. 

House-furniture  was  then,  and  always  remained, 
a  comparatively  insignificant  affair.  The  Japan- 
ese never  had  to  trouble  themselves  much  about 
such  things  as  curtains,  carpets,  chairs,  sofas,  or 
tables.  When  an  aristocrat  wanted  to  read,  for 
example,  a  small  cushion  was  placed  on  the 
floor  for  his  seat,  having  on  the  left  an  arm-rest, 
in  front  a  lectern,  on  the  right  a  bookcase.  All 
these  objects  were  made  of  rich  lacquer.  A 
screen  also  stood  close  at  hand ;  not  the  six-leaved 

1  See  Appendix,  note  53. 

205 


JAPAN 

folding  screen  of  later  times,  but  a  silk  curtain 
depending  from  a  horizontal  bar,  which  was  sup- 
ported by  a  slender  pillar  fixed  in  a  heavy  socket. 
A  metal  mirror  mounted  on  an  elaborate  tripod- 
stand,  a  clothes-horse,  usually  of  gold  lacquer, 
and  a  species  of  low  two-shelved  table  on  which 
stood  a  censer  and  a  box  of  incense-implements, 
completed  the  furniture  of  the  apartment  in 
warm  weather,  but  in  winter  there  was  added  a 
box  for  burning  charcoal  —  metal  braziers  not 
having  yet  come  into  fashion.  For  lighting 
purposes  the  commonest  device  was  a  rush-wick 
laid  in  a  shallow  vessel  of  oil  from  which  the 
end  of  the  wick  projected.  This  vessel  was 
either  supported  on  a  bamboo  tripod,  or  fixed  to 
an  upright  rod  moving  in  a  vertical  socket,  so 
that  the  height  of  the  light  could  be  regulated 
at  will.  The  annals  speak  of  "  combustible 
earth  "  and  "  combustible  water,"  in  other  words, 
coal  and  oil,  as  having  been  presented  to  the 
Court  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  by 
the  inhabitants  of  a  part  of  Japan  correspond- 
ing to  the  present  province  of  Echigo,1  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  coal  was  ever  employed 
in  ancient  times.  Tallow  candles  seem  to  have 
been  in  use  from  the  ninth  century.  They 
were  set  on  a  pricket  stand.  In  short,  the 
Japanese  of  the  Heian  epoch  were  as  well  sup- 
plied with  lighting  apparatus  as  any  of  their 
successors  until  modern  times. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  54. 

2O6 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

For  riding  abroad  ox-carriages  and  palanquins 
were  used.  The  palanquin,  essentially  a  Chinese 
institution,  was  originally  reserved  for  the  sover- 
eign, the  Empress,  and  the  chief  ritualist,  —  an 
imperial  prince,  —  but  that  rule  ultimately  lost 
its  exclusive  force.  In  general  form  the  palan- 
quin bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  sedan-chair 
of  the  eighteenth  century  in  England.  The 
shafts,  however,  were  of  great  length,  and  a  long 
curtain  of  thin  silk  completely  draped  the  body, 
concealing  the  inmate  from  public  gaze.  Some- 
times richest  gold  lacquer  covered  the  wood- 
work of  this  vehicle  ;  sometimes  the  body,  shafts, 
and  roof  were  of  glossy  black,  contrasting  finely 
with  the  snow-white  curtain  and  the  gilded 
mountings.  A  very  much  more  elaborate  and 
brilliant  equipage  was  the  ox-carriage.  Its  portly 
wheels  and  strong  shafts  were  generally  black, 
but  the  body  glowed  with  richly  tinted  lacquer, 
and  was  set  off  by  ornaments  of  silver  elaborately 
chased  and  chiselled.  Delicate  bamboo  blinds, 
coloured  green  and  having  bands  of  red  brocade 
and  tassels  of  silk,  hung  at  the  four  sides,  and  the 
ox,  generally  a  jet-black  beast  of  fine  proportions, 
was  handsomely  caparisoned  with  red  harness. 
One  of  these  carriages,  moving  along  at  a  stately 
pace  and  escorted  by  a  strong  body  of  officers  in 
flowing  robes  of  silk  and  brocade  and  men  at 
arms  with  picturesque  costumes  and  glittering 
accoutrements,  presented  a  spectacle  in  harmony 
with  the  luxurious  extravagance  of  the  time. 

207 


JAPAN 

"  Carriage  folk  "  stood  on  a  special  social  pedestal 
then  just  as  they  do  now.  Everybody  kept  a 
carriage  if  he  could  possibly  afford  the  luxury, 
and  everybody  that  could  not  afford  it  tried  to 
borrow  one  for  public  occasions.  Now  and  then 
economical  sovereigns  made  efforts  to  check  the 
spend|hrift  tendency  of  the  aristocrats  in  these 
matters,  but  no  permanent  success  was  achieved. 

There  was  an  elaborate  code  of  procedure  for 
the  guidance  of  equipages  meeting  en  route. 
Whether  to  dismount  from  horseback,  whether 
to  stop  one's  carriage,  whether  to  get  out  of  it 
and  stand  on  the  road ;  whether  even  to  unyoke 
the  ox  whether  to  limit  the  etiquette  to  an 
attendant's  obeisance,  —  all  these  and  other  points 
were  regulated  by  accurate  canons. 

As  to  costume,  comparing  the  Heian  epoch 
with  the  Nara,  there  is  found  in  the  former  a 
marked  tendency  to  increased  elaboration  and 
fuller  dimensions.  The  head-dress,  in  the  case 
of  princes  and  principal  military  officials,  became 
again  an  imposing  structure  glittering  with  jewels  ; 
the  sleeves  grew  so  large  that  they  hung  to  the 
knees  when  a  man's  arms  were  crossed,  and  the 
trousers  also  were  made  full  and  baggy,  so  that 
they  resembled  a  divided  skirt.  Unprecedented 
importance  attached  to  the  patterns  of  the  rich 
silks  and  brocades  used  for  garments.  The  sover- 
eign's robe  of  State  was  necessarily  ornamented 
with  a  design  of  nine  objects,  —  the  sun,  the 
moon,  the  stars,  a  mountain,  a  dragon,  etc.,  — 

208 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

but  no  restrictions  applied  in  the  case  of  subjects. 
The  designer  was  free  to  conventionalise  his  mo- 
tives or  to  follow  nature  closely,  and  the  embroid- 
erer's needle  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  weaver's 
shuttle.  From  this  era  may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced the  manufacture  of  the  tasteful  and  gor- 
geous textile  fabrics  for  which  Japan  afterwards 
became  famous.  The  decorative  design  on  a 
garment  did  not  serve  as  a  badge  of  rank.  Colour 
indicated  social  status.  The  sovereign  wore  a 
yellow  robe  in  the  Palace  and  a  red  one  when  he 
went  abroad.  Deep  purple  and  crimson  followed 
these  colours  in  order  of  dignity.  A  fop's  ideal 
was  to  wear  several  suits,  one  above  the  other, 
disposing  them  so  that  their  various  colours 
showed  in  harmoniously  contrasting  lines  at  the 
folds  on  the  bosom  and  at  the  edges  of  the  long 
sleeves.  A  successful  costume  created  a  sensation 
in  Court  circles.  Its  wearer  became  the  hero 
of  the  hour,  and  under  the  pernicious  influence 
of  such  ambition  men  began  even  to  powder  their 
faces  and  rouge  their  cheeks  like  women. 

The  costume  of  women  reached  the  acme  of 
unpracticality  and  extravagance  in  this  epoch. 
Long  flowing  hair  was  essential.  Unless  her 
tresses  trailed  on  the  ground  when  she  sat  down, 
a  lady's  toilet  was  counted  contemptible,  and  if 
her  locks  swept  two  feet  below  her  heels  as  she 
walked,  her  style  was  perfect.  Then,  what  with 
developing  the  volume  and  multiplying  the  num- 
ber of  her  robes,  and  wearing  above  her  trousers 
14.  209 


JAPAN 

a  many-plyed  train  which  followed  her  like  a 
gigantic  enlargement  of  the  fan  that  never  for  a 
moment  left  her  hand,  she  always  seemed  to  be 
struggling  to  emerge  from  a  cataract  of  habili- 
ments that  threatened  at  any  moment  to  over- 
whelm her.  The  records  say,  and  the  paintings  of 
contemporary  artists  show,  that  twenty  garments, 
one  above  the  other,  went  to  the  costume  of  a 
fine  lady  a  la  mode  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  cen- 
turies. Of  course  the  object  of  this  extravagance 
was  not  to  produce  an  appearance  of  bulk.  On 
the  contrary,  the  aim  of  a  well-dressed  woman 
was  to  have  her  robes  cut  so  deftly  and  to  don 
them  so  skilfully  that  they  conveyed  the  impres- 
sion, not  of  a  mass  of  stuffs,  but  of  a  play  of  har- 
monious colours.  There  was  nothing  garish  or 
rainbow-like  in  the  combination.  The  ground 
colour  —  that  is  to  say,  the  colour  of  the  outer  gar- 
ment —  seemed  at  first  to  be  all-pervading ;  but 
closer  inspection  showed  that  where  these  multi- 
tudinous robes  lay  folded  across  the  bosom  and 
where  their  pendent  sleeves  telescoped  into  one 
another,  each  ply  receded  by  a  fraction  of  an  inch 
from  the  ply  below  it,  so  that  the  whole  pro- 
duced the  effect  of  a  slightly  oblique  section 
made  across  numerous  superimposed  layers  of 
differently  tinted  silks.  Much  attention  was  di- 
rected also  to  the  art  of  transmitted  colour.  By 
using  material  thin  enough  to  give  passage  to  a 
breath  of  the  underlying  garment's  hue,  and  by 
carefully  studying,  not  the  science  of  colours,  but 

210 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

their  practical  values  in  combination  and  in  con- 
trast, the  aristocratic  lady  of  the  Heian  epoch 
dressed  herself  so  that  she  seemed  to  move  in  an 
atmosphere  of  delightful  tints,  tender  and  rich 
but  never  crude  or  obtrusive.  Fashion,  being 
governed  by  the  instincts  of  art  rather  than  the 
suggestions  of  fancy,  was  not  capricious.  There 
were  few  changes  of  shape  or  style.  All  that 
was  necessary  was  to  have  robes  of  appropriate 
colour  for  each  season  —  robes  resembling  the 
bloom  of  the  plum  and  the  cherry  in  spring ; 
that  of  the  azalea  and  the  scrabra  in  summer ; 
that  of  the  bush-clover,  the  yellow  or  white 
chrysanthemum,  the  dying  maple  leaf  and  the 
flower  of  the  ominameshi  (Patrinia  scabiosefolia) 
in  autumn,  and  that  of  the  pine  spray  and  the 
withered  leaf  in  winter.  There  were  colours 
that  might  be  worn  at  all  times  of  the  year,  but 
the  four  seasons  had  their  distinctive  tints.  In  a 
contemporary  record  of  a  fete  at  the  Palace  of 
the  Emperor  Shirakawara  in  the  year  1117,  it  is 
stated  that  forty  ladies  made  their  appearance 
costumed  in  the  most  novel  and  beautiful  styles. 
Some  wore  as  many  as  twenty-five  suits,  showing 
glimpses  of  purple,  of  crimson,  of  grass-green,  of 
wild-rose  yellow  and  of  sapan-wood  brown,  their 
sleeves  and  skirts  decorated  with  golden  designs. 
Others,  by  subtle  commingling  of  willow  sprays 
and  cherry  blossoms  and  by  embroidered  patterns 
picked  out  with  gems,  represented  the  poem  of 
the  jewels  and  the  flowers.  Others  had  costumes 

211 


JAPAN 

to  recall  that  "water  is  nature's  mirror;  "  or  that 
"  the  sun  of  spring  disperses  doubt  and  care,"  or 
that  "  love  lurks  in  summer's  hazes." 

But  if  the  ladies  of  the  Heian  epoch  took 
nature's  guidance  in  choosing  colours  and  deco- 
rative patterns  for  their  costumes,  they  relied 
solely  on  art  in  making  up  their  faces.  The 
eyebrows  were  either  plucked  out  by  the  roots 
or  shaved  off,  and  in  their  stead  two  black  spots 
were  painted  on  the  forehead ;  the  teeth  were 
stained  until  they  shone  like  ebony ;  the  face  and 
neck  were  covered  with  white  powder,  and  the 
cheeks  were  rouged.1 

The  rule  still  held  that  ladies  must  never  show 
their  faces  in  public.  Those  that  had  no  car- 
riages for  riding  abroad  enveloped  their  heads  in 
a  species  of  silk  hood.  This  hood  helped  them 
to  manage  their  long  hair  also.  The  back  hair 
was  disposed  under  the  hood,  and  the  ends  were 
pushed  into  the  girdle.  Generally  when  a  lady 
went  abroad  on  foot,  she  wore  a  wide-rimmed 
picturesque  hat,  and  an  umbrella  was  held  over 
her  head  by  an  attendant. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  men  showed  greater 
extravagance  than  women  in  the  matter  of  cos- 
tume and  ornaments.  The  romantic  Emperor 
Kwazan  carried  a  mirror  on  his  hat,  and  in  the 
reign  (987—1011)  of  his  successor,  one  of  the 
Fujiwara  magnates  had  crystal  notches  for  his 
arrows.  Bows,  arrows,  and  swords  became  mere 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  55. 

112 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

ornaments.  The  sheath  of  the  sword,  the  quiver, 
and  even  the  bow  were  magnificently  lacquered 
and  sometimes  studded  with  gems.  Gold  lacquer 
was  used  even  for  ornamenting  the  sleeves.  No 
self-respecting  aristocrat  failed  to  have  a  looking- 
glass  on  his  person  or  to  apply  perfume  to  his 
clothes.  A  dignified  bearing  was  sought  by 
severity  of  line,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century  this  foible  had  been  carried  so 
far  that  a  well-dressed  man  looked  as  if  his  gar- 
ments had  been  cut  out  of  boards,  and  his  move- 
ments were  carefully  studied  to  enhance  that 
effect.  He  expended  as  much  thought  on  his 
head-gear  as  a  modern  lady  of  the  West  does 
upon  her  hat,  for  though  the  orthodox  shapes  of 
head-covering  did  not  present  much  variety,  there 
were  many  little  points  upon  which  care  and 
taste  might  be  exercised.  Colours,  as  has  been 
already  shown,  served  to  distinguish  ranks  under 
the  system  inaugurated  in  the  seventh  century, 
but  that  rule  having  lost  much  of  its  force  in 
the  Heian  epoch,  families  commenced  to  design 
badges  for  purposes  of  distinction.  A  long  skirt 
also  began  to  be  used  in  this  era  as  a  mark  of 
social  status,  but  the  innovation  did  not  receive 
extravagant  development  until  the  succeeding 
period. 

The  viands  of  the  time  and  the  method  of 
cooking  and  serving  them,  though  not  so  varied 
and  elaborate  as  those  of  modern  days,  neverthe- 
less indicated  a  high  state  of  refinement.  It  is 

213 


JAPAN 

not  possible,  of  course,  to  speak  with  much  detail 
of  this  subject,  but,  reducing  the  matter  to  arith- 
metic, it  appears  that  rice  was  prepared  in  ten 
different  ways ;  that  there  were  nineteen  staples 
of  fish  diet  and  twenty-two  ways  of  cooking 
them  ;  that  there  were  three  relishes  ;  nine  edible 
sea-weeds ;  twenty-four  kinds  of  vegetable  ;  seven- 
teen varieties  of  fruit ;  eleven  kinds  of  cake ;  six 
kinds  of  flesh  of  animals  and  birds,  and  three 
kinds  of  beverages.1  Religious  superstition  inter- 
fered with  diet  as  with  everything  else.  The 
flesh  of  deer,  boar,  and  cattle  ceased  to  be  eaten, 
but  as  the  sport  of  flying  hawks  at  wild  duck  and 
pheasants  survived  even  the  veto  of  Buddhism, 
the  flesh  of  those  birds  as  well  as  of  barn-door 
fowl  appeared  constantly  on  the  tables  of  the 
upper  classes.  Milk,  however,  and  a  species  of 
cheese  or  butter  obtained  from  it,  went  entirely 
out  of  vogue.  Many  combinations  of  edibles 
were  tabooed  from  superstitious  motives.  For 
example,  scsamum  must  not  be  eaten  with  onion  ; 
vinegar  with  clams  ;  parsley  with  the  flesh  of  the 
wild  boar  ;  ginger  with  plums  and  so  on.  Nearly 
every  month,  too,  had  its  list  of  forbidden  foods. 
A  strange  custom  had  its  origin  in  the  impor- 
tance attached  to  cleanliness  in  the  art  of  cooking. 
Before  dinner  was  served,  the  cook,  dressed  in 
ceremonial  robes,  came  into  the  guest-chamber, 
made  his  obeisance,  placed  a  cooking-board  on 
the  ground,  and  holding  a  knife  in  his  right  hand 

1  See  Appendix,  note  56. 

2I4 


THE  HEIAN  EPOCH 
and  a  pair  of  long  chopsticks  in  his  left,  pro- 
ceeded to  kill  a  fish  and  prepare  it  for  the  fire, 
never  allowing  anything  to  touch  it  except  the 
knife  and  the  sticks.  Seen  for  the  first  time,  the 
spectacle  was  frank  enough  to  be  disgusting ;  but 
its  revolting  features  were  soon  forgotten  in  con- 
sideration of  the  dexterity,  grace,  and  solemn 
dignity  of  the  officiating  cook's  movements  and 
demeanour.  Sometimes  the  host  himself  took 
a  conventional  part  in  this  function  by  way  of 
special  compliment  to  his  guests. 

Considering  how  much  the  Japanese  borrowed 
from  China  during  the  interval  from  the  seventh 
to  the  twelfth  century,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find 
that,  like  the  Chinese,  they  used  a  large  table  for 
dining  purposes.  But  they  did  not  employ  chairs 
or  stools,  nor  were  dishes  handed  round.  They 
sat  on  cushions,  and  all  the  viands  for  each  diner 
were  ranged  before  him  in  utensils  reserved  for 
him  alone.  Even  salt,  vinegar,  and  soy  were  not 
in  common,  every  convive  having  his  own  special 
supply.  According  to  Chinese  custom  the  prin- 
cipal viand  is  piled  in  a  large  bowl  or  dish  from 
which  all  help  themselves  at  will.  Such  a  method 
could  never  have  been  reconciled  with  the  Japan- 
ese instinct  of  cleanliness.  Besides,  the  Japanese 
considered  that  a  good  dinner  must  be  picturesque 
as  well  as  palatable.  The  shaping  and  decorating 
of  trays  and  stands,  and  the  arranging  of  the 
viands  upon  them  became  a  deeply  studied  art. 
Fine  porcelains  were  not  yet  procurable,  for 

215 


JAPAN 

China,  under  the  Sung  emperors,  had  not  begun 
to  manufacture  on  a  large  scale  the  delicate,  trans- 
lucid  ware  for  which  she  afterwards  became 
famous,  and  Japan's  ceramic  ability  was  on  a 
still  lower  level.  Cups  and  bowls  of  solid  celadon 
stone-ware  filled  the  place  of  honour  at  aristo- 
cratic feasts,  and  tea,1  on  the  rare  occasions  of 
its  use,  was  drunk  from  cups  of  unglazed  pottery, 
as  was  sake  also,  though  a  favourite  decanter  for 
serving  it  took  the  form  of  a  section  of  fresh, 
green  bamboo.  Effects  of  purity  and  due  subor- 
dination were  studied  by  fashioning  many  of  the 
trays  and  stands  out  of  milk-white  pine,  cut  to 
the  thinness  of  a  wafer,  the  viands  themselves 
being  so  disposed  as  to  give  a  play  of  colour  and 
an  air  of  variety.  Lacquered  utensils  also  had  a 
place  at  the  board,  but  were  always  in  a  minority. 
The  menus  of  two  dinners  given  by  Fujiwara 
Ministers  of  State  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  have  been  handed  down  by  annalists. 
One  of  them  shows  that  arithmetical  symmetry 
was  considered  as  well  as  the  pleasures  of  the 
palate.  There  were  eight  entrees  —  rice-dump- 
lings, three  varieties  of  oranges,  chestnuts  (boiled), 
dried  persimmons,  pears  and  jujubes ;  —  eight 
"dry  viands"  —  steamed  clam,  dried  bird's  flesh, 
dried  fish  in  slices  (eaten  with  soy  and  vinegar), 
roasted  sea-bream,  fried  suzuki  (percalabrax}, 
grilled  salmon,  roasted  cuttle-fish  and  lobsters  ;  — 
and  eight  "  moist  viands  "  —  carp,  trout,  salt-trout 

1  See  Appendix,  note  57. 

2l6 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

boiled,  pheasant  (steamed  with  mushrooms), 
salmon-trout,  boiled  sea-bream,  cuttle-fish  soup, 
and  suzuki  soup.  All  these  seem  to  have  been 
served  at  once.  When  a  guest  took  his  place,  he 
found  that  his  section  of  the  table  bore  a  phalanx 
of  vessels  and  utensils  marshalled  with  symmetri- 
cal regularity.  Immediately  before  him  were  a 
pair  of  chopsticks  and  a  spoon ;  beyond  these  lay 
an  empty  cup,  and,  ranged  in  a  line  from  left  to 
right,  having  the  cup  for  the  centre,  were  a  plate 
of  sliced  pears,  a  vessel  of  vinegar,  a  decanter  of 
sake,  and  a  pot  of  soy.  Beyond  these  and  parallel 
to  them  a  row  of  four  dishes  were  set,  containing 
jelly-fish,  trepang  and  beche-de-mer.  These  con- 
stituted the  hors  d'auvre.  Beyond  them,  mar- 
shalled in  two  horizontal  ranks  of  four  plates 
each,  were  the  entrees ;  and  on  the  right  and  left, 
respectively,  were  the  eight  "  dry  viands "  and 
the  eight  "  moist  viands,"  each  group  in  two 
vertical  ranks  of  four  plates  per  rank. 

Nothing  in  the  way  of  table-decoration,  as 
practised  in  Europe  and  America,  seems  to  have 
been  attempted.  Flower  and  other  decorative 
devices  did,  however,  make  their  appearance  in 
the  banqueting-hall  in  accordance  with  peculiar 
customs.  From  ancient  times,  when  offerings 
of  scalloped  paper  and  a  mirror  were  presented 
at  a  shrine,  etiquette  required  that  they  should 
be  suspended  from  a  branch  of  the  Cly  era  japonic  a, 
since  to  touch  them  with  the  hand  was  to  defile 
them.  By  refinement  of  conception  habitual  to 

217 


JAPAN 

the  Japanese,  this  idea  was  extended  to  presents ; 
they  were  fastened  to  a  branch  of  some  flowering 
tree.  Then  the  same  fancy  received  obscure 

• 

development  at  the  hands  of  poetasters,  who,  in 
sending  a  couplet  to  a  friend  or  a  lover,  accom- 
panied it  by  a  blossom  suitable  to  the  season.  If 
an  article  was  too  large  to  be  hung  from  a  flower- 
spray,  convention  must  be  complied  with  by  tying 
the  spray  to  the  article.1  The  same  custom  found 
another  form  of  expression  in  the  despatch  of 
letters :  they  were  placed  in  a  split  bamboo  held 
aloft  by  the  messenger  as  he  ran.  Social  etiquette 
delighted  in  this  language  of  allegory.  Thus,  in 
the  epoch  under  review  it  was  customary  to  place 
in  a  hall,  at  times  of  feasting  or  couplet-compos- 
ing, a  miniature  ship  carved  in  the  perfumed 
wood  of  the  agallochum.  It  stood  upon  a  tray 
strewn  with  sand  among  which  glistened  frag- 
ments of  rock-crystal,  coral,  jade,  carnelians,  and 
other  brightly  coloured  minerals.  This  was  the 
ship  of  fortune  arriving  at  the  isle  of  elysium. 
In  later  times  it  often  took  the  form  of  the 
mountain  of  paradise  with  the  symbols  of  lon- 
gevity, the  crane,  the  tortoise,  and  the  pine. 

The  development  of  singing,  dancing,  and 
music  is  among  the  most  remarkable  features  of 
the  Heian  epoch.  It  would  be  an  extravagance 
to  say  that  the  era  produced  any  great  scholars  in 
the  Occidental  sense  of  the  term,  for  the  range 
of  accessible  knowledge  was  extremely  narrow. 

1  See  Appendix,  note  58. 

218 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

Men  profoundly  versed  in  the  Chinese  philo- 
sophical writings  were  not  wanting,  but,  as  a 
general  rule,  refined  accomplishments  were  the 
test  of  high  education.  From  princes,  ministers 
of  State,  and  military  magnates  down  to  office- 
clerks  and  house-stewards,  everybody  studied  sing- 
ing, dancing,  and  the  art  of  composing  stanzas. 
Songs  and  dances  of  comparatively  simple  charac- 
ter had  been  in  vogue  from  ancient  times,  as  has 
been  already  seen.  Now,  however,  not  only 
were  large  drafts  made  upon  the  repertories  of 
Korea  and  China,  but  extensive  modifications  and 
elaborations  were  devised  by  the  Japanese  them- 
selves. Imperial  progresses,  public  feasts,  reli- 
gious ceremonies,  private  entertainments,  —  every 
conspicuous  incident  of  existence  was  treated  as 
an  occasion  for  playing  instruments,  treading 
measures,  or  extemporising  verses.  From  perus- 
ing the  literature  of  the  epoch  the  student  rises 
with  a  bewildered  impression  that  society's  per- 
petual occupation  was  to  dance  among  forests  of 
blossom  or  in  the  glow  of  the  moonlight ;  to  float 
over  the  water  in  boats  with  sculptured  dragons 
or  phoenixes  at  the  prow,  fair  girls  exquisitely 
costumed  at  the  poles,  and  for  passengers  noble- 
men and  high  officials  playing  flutes  and  guitars 
and  beating  drums ;  to  marshal  gorgeous  pageants 
in  worship  of  the  gods ;  to  write  verses  for  hang- 
ing on  blossomy  trees  and  plants  or  for  reading  at 
competitive  fetes,  and  to  issue  or  accept  invitations 
to  feasts  or  sports.  There  were  twenty  varieties 

219 


JAPAN 

of  musical  instruments  —  several  kinds  of  flute, 
five  kinds  of  drum,  a  species  of  pandean  pipe, 
two  kinds  of  flageolet,  a  species  of  harmonica,  an 
oboe,  a  horizontal  harp,  a  vertical  harp,  two 
kinds  of  guitar,  and  a  cymbal,  etc.  Many  of 
these  became  so  famous  for  the  beauty  of  their 
tone  that  special  appellations1  were  given  to 
them,  and  although  neither  their  sound  nor  the 
music  produced  with  them  would  have  delighted 
Occidental  ears,  the  Japanese  were  wont  to  say 
that  if  a  skilled  performer  with  a  perfectly  pure 
heart  played  on  one  of  these  famous  instruments, 
the  very  dust  on  the  ceiling  could  not  choose  but 
dance. 

It  would  be  an  interminable  task  to  attempt 
any  exhaustive  description  of  the  dances  in  vogue 
during  the  Heian  epoch.  Only  eight  varieties 
of  genuine  old  Japanese  dance  existed,  but  these 
were  supplemented  by  twenty-five  Chinese, 
twelve  of  Indian  origin  transmitted  by  China, 
eighteen  Korean,  and  eleven  Japanese  adapta- 
tions. When  seventy-four  varieties  of  dance  are 
thus  indicated,  it  must  not  be  understood  that 
there  were  a  corresponding  number  of  salient  dif- 
ferences of  style.  It  is  true  that  the  movements 
in  every  case  were  carefully  trained,  and  that  each 
combination  constituting  a  particular  dance  could 
be  distinguished  by  practised  observers.  But  the 
main  feature  of  variety  had  to  be  sought  in  the 
pantomime.  Nearly  all  dances  performed  in 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  59. 

220 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

Japan  were  pantomimic.  The  Japanese  seem 
to  have  possessed,  from  the  dawn  of  their  national 
existence,  a  profound  appreciation  of  the  beauty 
and  grace  of  cadence  and  emphasis  in  modulated 
muscular  efforts,  but  the  great  majority  of  their 
dances  had  some  mimetic  import,  and  were  not 
suggested  solely  by  the  pleasure  of  rhythmic  and 
measured  movement.  That  is  the  chief  reason 
why  these  dances  seldom  produce  in  a  foreign 
observer  the  sense  of  exquisite  delight  that  they 
excite  in  the  Japanese.  The  uninitiated  stranger 
feels,  when  he  sees  them,  like  one  watching  a 
drama  where  an  unknown  plot  is  acted  in  an 
unintelligible  language.  In  its  origin  the  Japan- 
ese dance  was  an  invocation  addressed,  as  has  been 
already  explained,  to  the  Sun  Goddess  to  lure  her 
from  her  cave.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  formula 
altogether  subordinate  to  the  dance,  and  serving 
chiefly  to  mark  the  cadence  and  the  measure. 
Thereafter  every  offering  made  to  the  gods  had 
to  be  supplemented  by  some  music  of  motion, 
and  gradually  the  dance  and  its  accompaniment 
of  metrical  chant  came  to  be  prolonged  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  offering,  so  that  they  ultimately 
constituted  an  important  part  of  the  ceremony  of 
worship,  as  well  as  a  prominent  feature  of  the  sub- 
sequent feast.  Then  followed  their  division  into 
"  chants  of  the  worship-dance "  (tori-mono-uta) 
and  "  chants  of  the  fete-dance  "  (mayebari},  both 
being  included  in  the  term  Kagura,  which  mime 
may  still  be  seen  by  any  one  visiting  the  shrine 

221 


JAPAN 

of  Kasuga  at  Nara,  and  is,  indeed,  constantly  per- 
formed at  Shinto  festivals  elsewhere.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  the  chants  that 
accompanied  the  kagura  as  then  danced,  were 
committed  to  writing,  and  found  to  number 
thirty-eight.  They  are  almost  wholly  devoid  of 
poetic  inspiration  and  depend  entirely  on  rhythm 
and  cadence  of  syllabic  pulsations,  five  beats  fol- 
lowed by  seven,  five  again  by  seven,  and  then 
seven  by  seven.  Here  are  some  examples :  — 

SPECIMEN   OF'  THE   MAYEEARI  (OR   CHANT 
OF   THE   FETE   DANCE) 

Deeply  dipping  deep 

In  the  rain-fed  river's  tide, 

Robe  and  stole  we  dye. 

Rain  it  raineth,  yet, 

Rain  it  raineth,  yet, 

Rain  it  raineth,  yet, 

Dies  the  colour  never-more ; 

Never  fades  the  deep-dyed  hue. 

SPECIMEN   OF    TORIMONO-UTJ  (OR  CHANT 
OF   THE   WORSHIP-DANCE) 

Sacred  offerings  pure, 

Not  for  mortal  beings  spread, 

But  for  her,  sky-throned, 

Majestic  Toyooka. 

Offerings  for  the  Gods  divine, 

Offerings  for  the  Gods. 

These  verses,  it  will  be  seen,  have  no  pretence 
to  be  called  poetry  :  they  merely  supply  the  mo- 

222 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

tive  of  the  dance  in  rhythmical  language.  The 
motions  accompanying  the  first  would  suggest 
the  dipping  of  cloth  in  lye,  the  dropping  of  rain, 
and  immutability.  The  motions  accompanying 
the  second  would  indicate  adoration,  humility,  and 
reverent  presentation.  In  fact,  all  the  Kagura 
dances  may  be  described  as  solemn  hand-wavings 
and  body-swayings,  without  any  movement  of  the 
feet  except  such  as  is  necessary  to  preserve  equi- 
librium, and  without  the  least  approach  to  strong 
emotional  activity  suggesting  religious  exaltation. 
The  musical  accompaniment  was  a  weird,  mo- 
notonous strain  performed  on  a  Japanese  hori- 
zontal harp  (koto\  a  shrill  flute,  and  a  drum. 
From  the  sedate  Kagura  the  next  step  was  to  the 
Saibara,  which  may  be  described  as  street  sonnets 
set  to  Chinese  music  with  appropriate  mimetic 
dances.  In  these  the  performers  were  usually  men 
and  women  of  the  highest  degree,  the  orchestra 
consisted  of  two  kinds  of  flutes,  and  the  dancers 
beat  out  the  measure  with  ivory  batons,  commonly 
carried  by  nobles  and  ministers  in  that  era.  Sixty- 
one  of  these  ancient  dance-songs  have  been  pre- 
served. Like  the  Kagura  they  embody  suggestions 
of  simple  scenes  and  simple  actions,  the  only  dif- 
ference being  greater  variety  of  gesture,  greater 
intricacy  of  movement,  and  more  picturesque 
costumes.  For  example,  a  party  of  youths  and 
maidens,  robed  in  many-coloured  garments  and 
carrying  toy  nets  and  baskets,  glide  upon  the  scene, 
imitating  the  undulating  movement  of  the  waves, 

223 


JAPAN 

the  slow  sweep  of  the  ebbing  tide,  the  graceful 
searches  for  sea  treasures,  and,  finally,  the  in- 
ward roll  of  the  returning  sea,  chanting  as  they 
move :  — 

Salt-waved  Ise's  sea, 

Ebbing,  ebbing,  leaves  behind 

Strips  of  salt  sea-shore. 

Wave-washed  sea-weed  gather  we  ? 

Sighing  sea-shells  gather  we  ? 

Gems  the  sea-waves  wore? 

Differing  little  from  the  Saibara  were  the 
Azuma-mai,  or  dances  of  the  eastern  provinces ; 
the  Fuzoku-uta,  or  genre  chants;  the  Royei,  or 
lays  of  delight,  and  the  Imayo,  or  songs  of  life. 
The  two  last  had  their  origin  in  the  intoning  of 
the  Sutras  by  Buddhist  priests,  and  many  of  them 
deal  with  religious  subjects.  But  the  vast  major- 
ity are  purely  secular.  If  one  introduces  a  sin- 
ner lamenting  that  heaven  has  rejected  him, 
another  shows  a  lover  perplexed  about  the  path 
to  the  object  of  his  affections.  The  irony  of  fate 
decided  that  these  particular  dances  should  be  the 
ones  chosen  by  the  Shirabiyoshi  in  the  twelfth 
century.  These  Shirabiyoshi  were  the  prototypes 
of  the  modern  Geisha  (professional  danseuses). 
Their  name — white  measure-markers — was  de- 
rived from  the  fact  that  they  originally  appeared 
in  snow-white  robes,  carrying  a  white-sheathed 
sword,  and  wearing  a  man's  head-dress.  They 
were  not  the  first  females  who  made  dancing  a 
business.  In  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century 

224 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

dancing-girls  gave  their  services  to  amuse  the 
Court,  and  the  Emperor  Uda  (888-897)  to°k 
one  of  them  to  his  arms.  But  the  "white 
measure-markers"  were  much  more  than  ordi- 
nary danseuses.  Their  accomplishments  were  of 
the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  muscles.  If  they 
could  translate  the  motive  of  a  couplet  into  an 
exquisitely  graceful  pantomime,  they  could  also 
suggest  novel  motives  and  weave  them  into 
verses  at  once  sweet  and  scholarly.  Besides,  no 
sacrifice  overtaxed  their  complaisance.  They 
became  the  rage  in  the  closing  days  of  the 
Heian  epoch,  and  their  favourite  measure  was 
the  quasi-religious  Imayo.  It  was  as  though 
love-sonnets  should  be  sung  to  hymn  music. 
The  number  of  the  Imayo  was  legion,  but  the 
manner  of  dancing  them  did  not  materially  differ 
from  that  of  the  Saibara. 

SPECIMENS   OF   IMAYO. 

Pass  we  by  the  sea-side  road, 
High  swell  the  wave-hills  ; 
Climb  we  by  the  hill-side  track, 
High  the  cloud-clad  pass  ; 
Wend  we  by  the  northern  road, 
High  piled  the  snow-drifts ; 
Come,  come  by  Ise's  high  way, 
One  way,  only  one. 

Sad  sadness  of  the  sweet  past, 
Sweet  the  sad  gone-by  ; 
Mem'ry  of  a  severed  love, 
Dead  but  ne'er  to  die. 
15  225 


JAPAN 

Parents  part  and  children  part, 
But  of  woes  the  worst, 
The  parting  of  lovers  while 
Love  is  still  athirst.1 

There  was  also  a  large  miscellany  of  dances 
with  accompaniment  of  street-songs  (rika)  and 
popular  ballads  (zokuyo),  the  motives  of  which 
generally  betrayed  extreme  triviality  of  concep- 
tion and  the  mimetic  execution  showed  little 
fidelity.  Many  of  them  nevertheless  found  fa- 
vour at  Court  and  in  aristocratic  circles,  where 
their  frank  silliness  made  a  pleasant  contrast  to 
the  stately  measure  of  the  classic  dance.  The 
"cloud-land  coxcombs,"  who  painted  their  faces 
after  the  manner  of  women  and  carried  a  look- 
ing-glass in  their  sleeves,  had  no  difficulty  in 
appreciating  such  flights  of  fancy  as  — 

Ancient  rat  youthful  rattie, 
Rats  of  Saiji's  fane, 
Gnaw  the  cassock,  gnaw  the  stole, 
Gnaw  the  vestments  well. 
Tell  the  priest,  tell  the  prelate, 
Ah !  the  prelate  tell. 

Combs  ten,  combs  seven, 
Combs  I  counted  yestereve, 
Counted  one  by  one. 
One  by  one  have  vanished,  combs, 
Count  to-day  combs  none. 

To  these  varieties  of  dance-motives  have  to  be 
added  two  which  had  wide  vogue  among  all 

1  Sec  Appendix,  note  60. 

226 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

classes  of  the  nation,  namely,  the  Saru-gaku,  or 
"  monkey  mime,"  and  the  Den-gaku,  or  "  bu- 
colic mime."  The  monkey  mime  was  suggested 
by  a  courtier,  who  went  about  the  Palace  garden 
one  night  with  the  skirts  of  his  robe  tucked  up, 
simulating  cold  and  dancing  to  a  refrain  that  will 
not  bear  translation.  It  was,  in  short,  a  comic 
dance  adapted  to  any  and  every  motive,  its  sole 
purpose  being  to  create  laughter.  There  were 
thirty  celebrated  Saru-gaku  (or  San-gaku,  as  it  is 
also  called),  all  of  which  were  reputed  to  be 
capable  of  drawing  tears  of  laughter  from  a  con- 
firmed misanthrope.  The  stanzas  recited  by 
Saru-gaku  performers  in  early  times  have  not 
been  preserved.  They  seem  to  have  been  of  a 
trivial,  jesting  character,  unworthy  of  record  and 
entertaining  only  in  connection  with  the  dance. 
Neither  is  it  quite  certain  that  the  account  here 
given  of  the  origin  of  the  Saru-gaku  is  correct. 
Some  authorities  maintain  that  the  dance  dates 
from  the  time  of  Prince  Shotoku  (572-621); 
that  its  real  name  was,  not  "  monkey  (saru) 
mime,"  but  "  three  (sari)  instruments  music ; " 
that  it  derived  the  appellation  from  the  fact  of 
three  kinds  of  Korean  hand-drum  having  been 
then,  for  the  first  time,  used  to  accompany  songs, 
and  that  the  prefix  "three  "  (sari)  was  afterwards 
changed  into  saru  (monkey)  owing  to  mispro- 
nunciation, or  because  the  dance  received  an 
essentially  comic  character.  Yet  another  theory 
assigns  to  the  prefix  san  the  significance  of  "  dis- 

227 


JAPAN 

orderly,"  and  attributes  that  designation  to  the 
irregular  nature  of  the  costume  worn  by  the 
dancer.  This  perplexity  illustrates  a  notable 
defect  of  the  ideographic  script :  two  different 
ideographs,  one  meaning  "  disorderly "  and  the 
other  "  three,"  are  phonetically  identical,  and 
might  easily  be  interchanged  by  a  writer  relying 
on  sound  only.  It  matters  very  little,  however, 
how  the  dance  originated  or  by  what  name  it 
was  called  at  first.  The  only  point  of  interest  is 
that,  in  the  Heian  epoch,  it  took  the  form  of 
grotesque  posturing  and  pacing  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  a  comic  couplet,  the  playing  of  a  flute 
and  the  beating  of  a  hand-drum.  The  "  bucolic 
mime  "  (Dengaku)  belonged  to  a  still  lower  rank 
of  art  than  the  Saru-gaku.  It  scarcely  rose  to  the 
level  of  a  definite  combination  of  graceful  move- 
ments, but  was  rather  a  display  of  mere  muscular 
activity,  in  short,  a  species  of  acrobatic  perform- 
ance, including  pole-balancing,  stilt-walking,  and  a 
kind  of  sword-and-ball  exercise  by  men  mounted 
on  high  clogs.  It  nevertheless  deserves  the  name 
of  dance,  because  the  movements  of  the  performer 
were  measured,  and  because  there  was  a  musical 
accompaniment  of  flute  and  drum.  Thus  de- 
scribed, the  "  monkey  mime  "  and  the  "  bucolic 
mime  "  seem  very  trivial  and  unworthy  of  atten- 
tion, but  it  will  be  seen  by  and  by  that  their 
developments  are  of  some  importance. 

If  lengthy  reference  is  here  made  to  dancing 
and  singing   in   the   Heian   epoch,   it   is  because 

228 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

these  pastimes  occupied  an  extraordinary  share 
of  popular  attention.  The  few  sober  men  of  the 
time  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  "  divine  fox  " 
had  bewitched  the  nation.  This  delirious  mood 
looks  even  stranger  when  contrasted  with  the 
zeal  for  religion  and  the  obedience  to  superstition 
that  prevailed.  Sovereigns,  nobles,  and  princes, 
who  did  not  shrink  from  impoverishing  them- 
selves to  endow  temples,  set  up  idols,  or  have 
masses  said  for  their  welfare,  and  who  were  ready 
at  all  times  to  shave  their  heads  and  enter  a  clois- 
ter, nevertheless  had  no  hesitation  about  indulg- 
ing in  voluptuous  excesses  of  every  kind.  Perhaps 
the  explanation  is  that  morality  did  not  enter 
seriously  into  the  programme  of  education.  The 
"  Scripture  of  Filial  Piety  "  and  the  "  Analects  of 
Confucius "  were  studied  in  the  schools,  but 
neither  of  these  volumes  touched  the  question 
of  a  supreme  being  or  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave, 
and  though  the  Buddhist  priests  preached  a  noble 
doctrine,  their  own  lives  did  not  conform  to  their 
precepts.  Thus  the  displays  of  munificent  piety 
that  characterised  the  era  seem  to  have  been  an 
hysterical  aftermath  of  extreme  self-indulgence 
rather  than  an  outgrowth  of  earnest  conviction. 

The  education  here  spoken  of  must  not  be 
interpreted  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term. 
There  was  no  such  thing  as  national  education 
in  the  Nara  and  Heian  epochs.  A  few  schools 
existed  in  Kyoto,  but  they  were  founded  and  sup- 
ported by  the  great  families  and  destined  solely 

229 


JAPAN 

for  the  instruction  of  the  latter's  children,  rela- 
tives and  vassals.  The  Wake  family,  the  Fuji- 
wara  family,  the  Ariwara  family,  the  Minamoto 
family,  and  the  Tachibana  family,  each  had  its 
own  school  in  the  capital,  but  for  the  vast  bulk 
of  the  nation  no  educational  facilities  of  any  kind 
existed.  What  the  schools  taught,  too,  was  the 
art  of  employing  the  Chinese  language  deftly  for 
composing  stanzas  and  writing  essays.  Science 
and  philosophy  were  not  in  the  curricula.  And 
even  that  meagre  education  ceased  to  be  obtain- 
able as  Ky5to  fell  into  disorder  towards  the 
closing  years  of  the  Heian  epoch.  For  in  pro- 
portion as  the  Fujiwara  nobles,  who  usurped  the 
administrative  authority,  abandoned  themselves  to 
pleasure  and  neglected  their  official  duties,  their 
own  followers  set  an  example  of  lawlessness 
which  provoked  a  retaliatory  mood  on  the  part 
of  its  victims,  and,  at  the  same  time,  not  only 
did  the  provincial  authorities  become  more  and 
more  independent  of  the  central  government,  but 
the  people  also,  rendered  desperate  by  excessive 
taxation,  took  to  robbery  and  piracy  on  an  exten- 
sive scale.  Gangs  of  bandits  infested  the  prov- 
inces and  invaded  the  capital  itself,  not  hesitating 
even  to  besiege  the  house  of  a  great  noble.  For 
several  years  a  notorious  leader  of  robbers  lived 
openly  in  Kyoto.  At  one  time  the  officers  of  the 
Imperial  guards  trooped  to  the  Palace  en  masse  to 
clamour  for  rice  ;  at  another,  armed  soldiers  inti- 
midated and  despoiled  the  citizens.  A  police 

230 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

force  existed  under  the  control  of  an  official,  who 
wielded  large  power.  The  members  of  the 
board  (Kebiishi)  over  which  he  presided  performed 
the  functions  not  only  of  administrative  police 
but  also  of  magistrates  and  judges  ;  the  decrees  of 
the  board  ranked  with  imperial  ordinances,  and 
persons  violating  them  were  treated  as  though 
they  had  disobeyed  the  sovereign's  commands. 
But  this  organisation  showed  itself  quite  unable 
to  preserve  order.  It  could  not  check  the  law- 
lessness of  the  bandits  that  invaded  Kyoto  and 
Nara ;  still  less  could  it  accomplish  anything 
against  the  multitude  of  these  depredators  that 
infested  the  Island  of  Four  Provinces  (Shikoku). 
The  bandits  were,  in  truth,  a  sign  of  the  time. 
Brigandage,  in  default  of  serfdom,  suggested  it- 
self to  many  as  the  only  possible  refuge  from  the 
intolerable  burden  of  taxation  imposed  to  supply 
funds  for  the  extravagant  luxury  of  the  aristo- 
crats. Fourteen  hundred  houses  lay  untenanted 
at  one  time  in  Kyoto,  their  inmates  having  fled 
to  the  provinces  to  live  by  plunder.  The  system 
of  five-family  guilds,  under  which  the  guild 
became  collectively  responsible  if  any  of  its 
members  absconded  without  paying  his  taxes, 
ceased  to  have  practical  efficacy,  for  the  guilds 
made  their  escape  en  masse.  Once  outside  a  circle 
of  small  radius  surrounding  Kyoto,  the  fugitives 
were  effectually  beyond  the  reach  of  the  central 
government's  authority,  for  not  only  did  the 
provincial  nobles  ignore  Kyoto's  mandates,  but 

231 


JAPAN 

also  means  of  communication  were  so  bad  that 
the  Court  could  not  hope,  by  its  own  unaided 
strength,  to  follow  and  arrest  a  fugitive.  It  is 
true  that  some  of  the  barriers  erected  to  check 
the  freedom  of  men's  movements  had  been 
removed,  but  these  artificial  obstructions  counted 
for  very  little  compared  with  the  absence  of  roads 
and  inns,  the  dangers  from  bandits  and  pirates 
and  the  want  of  any  organised  system  of  convey- 
ances. In  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century, 
a  famous  litterateur  describes  how  a  journey  from 
Tosa  to  Kyoto  took  more  than  fifty  days,  and 
a  century  later  a  high  official  spent  a  hundred  and 
twenty  days  getting  from  Hitachi  to  the  capital. 
The  only  important  place  easily  accessible  from 
Kyoto  was  Naniwa,  the  modern  Osaka.  It  was, 
in  effect,  the  port  of  Kyoto,  and  a  man  could 
travel  thither  by  boat,  calling  en  route  at  four 
towns,  and  paying  a  visit  finally  at  the  shrine  of 
the  three  Sea-Gods  at  Sumiyoshi,  where,  if  he 
intended  to  pursue  his  journey,  he  prayed  very 
fervently  for  protection.  Many  a  citizen  of 
Kyoto  made  the  trip  down  the  Yodo  River  to 
Naniwa  merely  for  pleasure.  Houses  of  enter- 
tainment abounded  in  the  towns  on  the  way,  and 
before  a  ship  dropped  anchor  she  was  surrounded 
by  boats  carrying  courtesans,  dancing  girls,  musi- 
cians, and  other  agents  of  amusement. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  courtesan  of 
those  days  descended  to  any  depth  of  moral  degra- 
dation when  she  espoused  her  abandoned  calling. 

232 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

The  aesthetic  enthusiasm  and  voluptuous  delirium 
of  the  era  created  an  atmosphere  in  which  polite 
accomplishments  could  eclipse  any  environment, 
and  ministers  to  pleasure  had  honour  irrespective 
of  their  methods.  In  this  respect  the  morality 
of  the  era  resembled  that  of  Greece  in  the  days 
when  Praxiteles  carved  a  statue  of  Phryne  and 
Apelles  painted  Lais.  There  did  not  indeed  exist 
a  social  vacancy  which  the  Tujo1  could  fill,  such 
as  was  created  in  Athens  by  the  seclusion  and 
ignorance  to  which  wives  were  condemned.  The 
Japanese  wife  took  her  due  place  in  society,  and 
owed  as  much  to  her  literary  attainments  as  to 
her  beauty  and  tact.  But  the  marital  tie  did  not 
possess,  even  approximately,  the  value  attached 
to  it  in  Christian  communities.  A  woman  might 
occupy  the  leading  place  in  a  household  and  be 
the  principal  star  in  any  social  galaxy  from  that 
of  the  Imperial  Court  downward,  without  having 
the  status  of  a  lawful  spouse.  Students  of  Japan- 
ese history,  when  they  observe  the  great  part  played 
by  females  in  the  politics  and  Court  life  of  the 
Heian  epoch,  cannot  fail  to  observe  also  that  the 
ethical  rule  applied  to  women's  conduct  was  almost 
as  lax  as  that  applied  to  men's.  The  beautiful  Aki, 
with  hair  that  exceeded  her  stature  by  ten  feet, 
who  bewitched  the  Emperor  Ichijo ;  the  fair 
danseuse  Tamabuchi,  whom  the  staid  Emperor 
Uda  loved  ;  the  female  augurs  who  held  the 
threads  of  the  Fujiwara  intrigues ;  the  group  of 

1  See  Appendix,  note  61. 

233 


JAPAN 

brilliant  writers  —  Sei,  Murasaki,  Daini  no  Sammi, 
Izumi,  Koshikibu,  and  Udaisho  —  whose  names 
are  never  to  be  forgotten  so  long  as  Japanese 
literature  exists,  not  one  of  these  celebrities  can 
be  said  to  have  worn  the  white  flower  of  a  virtuous 
life.  In  the  hands  of  the  Fujiwara  nobles  women 
were  an  essential  instrument,  since  it  was  by  giv- 
ing a  daughter  to  be  the  mistress  of  a  sovereign, 
if  not  his  consort,  that  the  political  supremacy 
of  the  family  was  maintained  in  each  generation. 
A  woman  might  always  be  required  to  sacrifice 
her  virtue  in  the  interests  of  others,  and  naturally 
she  did  not  shrink  from  sacrificing  it  voluntarily 
in  her  own  interests.  She  fought  the  battle  of 
life  with  every  weapon  that  nature  had  given  her. 
Yoritomo,  the  great  Minamoto  leader,  before  he 
came  to  power  and  during  his  exile  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Izu,  loved  a  girl  of  good  family  who  bore 
him  a  son.  But  her  father,  fearing  Yoritomo's 
enemies,  caused  the  child  to  be  thrown  into  a 
river  and  married  the  girl  to  another  man  under 
another  name.  Yoritomo  then  paid  his  addresses 
to  a  younger  daughter  of  Hojo  Tokimasa,  but  was 
loved  in  turn  by  the  elder  daughter,  Masa,  who 
ultimately  succeeded  in  winning  his  affections. 
By  and  by  Yoritomo  showed  signs  of  transferring 
his  heart  elsewhere.  Masa  did  not  remonstrate 
with  him.  She  sent  a  body  of  soldiers  to  raid 
the  new  love's  house  and  drive  her  family  across 
the  border.  Yet  this  Masa  was  a  very  high  type 
of  woman.  Conspicuous  for  frugality,  keen  fore- 

234 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

sight,  and  wise  judgment,  she  brought  up  her 
children  admirably,  and  despite  her  own  fierce 
ruthlessness  towards  a  female  rival,  she  spared 
no  pains  to  soften  the  rude,  sanguinary  ways  of 
military  feudalism  in  the  Kamakura  epoch.  In 
later  life,  when  she  passed  through  Kyoto  after 
worshipping  at  the  shrines  of  Kumano,  the  ex- 
Emperor  conferred  on  her  a  rank  seldom  won 
even  by  the  most  prominent  statesman,  and  asked 
her  to  visit  him,  but  she  ridiculed  the  idea,  de- 
claring that  though  a  rustic  like  her  might  go  to 
pray  at  a  shrine,  she  had  no  place  in  courts  and 
among  courtiers.  If  women  could  attain  to  such 
distinction  in  spite  of  the  taint  of  irregular  sexual 
connections  and  often  by  their  aid,  virtue  might 
well  cease  to  be  esteemed.  It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  incontinence  was  not  counted  a  dis- 
graceful feature  in  the  life  of  a  good  man.  The 
Emperor  Ichijo,  who  lived  in  the  midst  of  most 
sensuous  surroundings  and  was  himself  a  slave  to  an 
extra-marital  affection,  nevertheless  had  sufficient 
nobility  of  character  to  pass  a  winter's  night  in  an 
almost  nude  condition  in  order  that  he  might  be 
able  to  sympathise  fully  with  the  sufferings  of  the 
poor.  There  was,  indeed,  a  much  lower  depth 
of  immorality  to  which  men  had  learned  to  de- 
scend in  that  epoch,  unnatural  love.  To  the 
everlasting  disgrace  of  the  Buddhist  priesthood, 
that  vice  had  the  sanction  of  their  practice,  and 
no  condemnations  of  it  are  found  in  the  literature 
of  the  time.  All  these  circumstances  prepare  the 

235 


JAPAN 

student  to  find  that  the  frail  sister  of  mediaeval 
Japan  was  in  no  sense  a  social  outcast.  She  had 
ready  access  to  the  houses  of  ministers  of  state 
and  other  chief  officials  or  prominent  noblemen. 
Her  singing  and  dancing  were  features  at  refined 
entertainments.  She  delighted  aristocratic  society 
with  her  clever  manipulation  of  puppets,  and  she 
composed  poems  which  found  a  permanent  place 
in  literature.1  Men  learned  to  call  her  "  castle- 
conqueror  "  (keisei)  rather  fazn.  fille-de-joie . 

The  reader  of  course  perceives  that  these  de- 
scriptions of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
Japanese  have  been  confined  almost  entirely  to 
the  upper  classes.  It  must  be  confessed  that  with 
regard  to  the  lower  orders  in  the  early  ages,  very 
little  information  is  available.  Independent  refer- 
ence will  be  made  to  the  development  of  trade  and 
industry,  and  in  connection  with  that  subject  some 
light  will  be  thrown  on  the  life  of  the  farmer,  the 
mechanic,  and  the  merchant.  But  in  truth  these 
people  played  a  very  subordinate  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  nation.  Except  for  the  sake  of  the 
taxes  they  paid  and  the  forced  labour  they  per- 
formed, they  were  of  small  account.  The  arti- 
san, however,  especially  the  art  artisan,  became 
a  person  of  great  and  growing  importance  from 
the  time  of  the  Empress  Suiko  (593-628)  on- 
ward, since  upon  him  devolved  the  task  of  build- 
ing and  decorating  the  grand  temples  and  spacious 
mansions  which  began  from  that  time  to  be  called 

1  See  Appendix,  note  63. 

236 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

into  existence.  Thus  the  painter,  the  sculptor,  the 
architect,  the  lacquerer,  and  the  worker  in  metals, 
all  were  recipients  of  honour,  patronage,  and  even 
rank,  and  in  that  way  was  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
class  of  men  who  gave  to  their  country  many  beau- 
tiful works,  and  ultimately  won  for  her  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  as  richly  dowered  with  the  art  instinct 
and  with  competence  to  give  it  faithful  expression 
as  was  even  ancient  Greece  in  her  best  days. 

Brief  allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the 
semmin ,  or  "  despised  people,  "  who  did  not 
belong  to  the  agricultural,  the  industrial,  or 
the  trading  class,  being  regarded  as  social  out- 
casts. Since  some  affinities  may  be  traced  be- 
tween their  condition  and  occupations  and  those 
of  the  Roman  servi,  the  term  "serfs"  has  been 
applied  to  the  semmin  in  these  pages,  and  the  facts 
relating  to  them  may  conveniently  be  set  down 
here. 

It  has  been  postulated  by  ethnologists  that 
slavery  never  constitutes  a  vital  element  of  any 
social  system  in  which  a  theocratic  organisation 
is  established.  Communities  where  the  military 
order  has  obtained  the  ascendancy  are  the  natural 
home  of  caste  divisions  which  relegate  the  indus- 
trial and  agricultural  functions  to  serfs  and  slaves. 
A  partial  vindication  of  that  theory  is  traceable 
in  the  story  of  the  Japanese,  among  whom  the 
tiller  of  the  soil,  the  mechanic,  and  the  trader 
ranked  as  plebeians,  or  commoners,  in  comparison 
with  the  military  patricians.  But  if  the  polity  of 

237 


JAPAN 

Japan  partook  largely  of  the  military  character,  it 
was  purely  theocratic  in  its  alleged  beginnings, 
and  thus  the  social  problems  connected  with  it 
refuse  to  be  solved  by  precedents  derived  from 
simpler  organisations.  The  "commoners"  (hei- 
min )  certainly  were  not  serfs  or  slaves,  according 
to  any  acknowledged  rendering  of  those  terms, 
and  even  the  "despised  people,"  while  some  of 
them  may  unquestionably  be  classed  as  slaves,  do 
not  find  their  exact  counterpart  in  any  system 
that  has  come  under  the  notice  of  Western  his- 
torians. As  far  back  as  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  Japanese  annals  refer 
to  semmin.  They  speak  of  a  nobleman  who, 
being  convicted  of  plotting  against  the  Court 
( 460  A.  D.  ),  was  condemned  to  death,  his  pos- 
terity for  eighty  generations  being  degraded  to 
the  rank  of  common  labourers.  Thenceforth 
various  incidents,  legal  enactments  and  ordinances 
exhibit  six  causes  which  operated  to  produce 
semmin;  namely,  crime,  subjugation,  debt,  special 
circumstances  of  birth,  naturalisation,  and  kid- 
napping. Treason  in  every  form  and  armed  con- 
quest were  sources  of  State  slaves  —  corresponding 
to  the  Roman  servt  publici.  A  rebel  or  a  con- 
spirator against  the  sovereign  suffered  death  — 
frequently  shared  by  his  sons  and  brothers  —  and 
all  the  rest  of  his  family  as  well  as  his  property 
were  confiscated.  As  for  conquest,  the  rights 
conferred  by  it  held  against  Japanese  as  well  as 
against  aliens.  Raids  made  by  Japanese  generals 

238 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

into  the  Korean  peninsula  resulted  in  the  capture 
of  numerous  Koreans  who,  being  carried  to 
Japan,  were  drafted  into  the  ranks  of  the  sem- 
miny  and  employed  in  various  menial  capacities. 
Probably  sections  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of 
Japan  suffered  the  same  fate  after  subjugation  by 
the  invaders.  With  regard  to  debt  as  a  source  of 
serfdom,  in  very  early  eras  its  influence  must 
have  been  considerable,  for,  at  the  close  of  the 
seventh  century  the  sovereign  found  it  necessary 
to  impose  restrictions.  Proclamation  was  then 
made  that  where  a  creditor  prescribed  serfdom  as 
a  penalty  for  failure  to  discharge  a  monetary  obli- 
gation, interest  must  not  be  charged.  Later  on, 
the  first  code — promulgated  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighth  century — sanctioned  the  principle  that 
an  insolvent  debtor's  person  might  become  the 
property  of  the  creditor,  but  imposed  legal  limits 
of  interest,  namely,  that  interest  payable  every 
sixtieth  day  must  not  exceed  one-eighth  of  the 
principal,  and  that,  even  though  a  period  of  four 
hundred  and  eighty  days  had  elapsed  without 
discharge  of  the  debt,  the  interest  must  not  ag- 
gregate a  larger  sum  than  the  original  obligation. 
The  issue  of  serf  parents  remained  a  serf,  but, 
by  a  curious  stretch  of  liberality,  an  immigrant 
from  a  foreign  land  who  had  been  a  serf  in  his 
own  country,  acquired  his  freedom  on  touch- 
ing Japanese  soil,  though,  if  he  subsequently 
suffered  degradation,  any  of  his  relatives  fol- 
lowing him  to  Japan  shared  his  fate.  The  ab- 

239 


JAPAN 

duction  and  kidnapping  of  men  and  women  and 
their  sale  into  serfdom  were  practices  against 
which  laws  had  to  be  enacted  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. The  crime  was  punished  by  a  maximum 
penalty  of  three  years'  penal  servitude.  But  here 
evidence  is  found  of  the  large  recognition  ac- 
corded to  rights  of  relationship,  for  the  closer  the 
degree  of  consanguinity  between  the  person  sold 
and  the  seller,  the  milder  the  penalty.  A  man 
selling  his  own  parent  or  cousin  became  liable  to 
two  and  a  half  years'  penal  servitude,  but  the  sale 
of  one's  own  child  or  grandchild  involved  only 
one  year  of  punishment,  and  if  the  sale  was  that 
of  a  daughter,  the  law  did  not  undertake  to  re- 
habilitate her. 

As  to  the  price  at  which  a  serf  was  valued, 
there  is  documentary  evidence  preserved  among 
the  archives  of  the  Nara  Court  (eighth  century). 
Three  males,  aged  respectively  34,  22,  and  15, 
were  sold,  the  first  two  for  a  thousand  sheaves  of 
rice  each ;  the  third  for  seven  hundred  sheaves. 
Three  females,  aged  22,  20,  and  15,  sold  at  the 
same  time,  were  appraised,  the  first  two  at  eight 
hundred  sheaves  each,  the  last  at  six  hundred. 
A  hundred  sheaves  of  rice  represent  a  koku  (5.13 
bushels)  which  now  sells  for  about  i  2  yen.  Thus 
an  adult  male  serf  was  valued  at  about  \2Q  yen, 
and  a  female  at  about  100  yen. 

The  cooperation  of  these  various  causes  must 
have  produced  a  considerable  number  of  semmin, 
and,  indeed,  the  best  statistics  available  indicate 

240 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

that  the  ratio  was  five  per  cent  of  the  total  popu- 
lation. Thus,  since  the  population  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighth  century  was  estimated  3,694,33 1,  the 
ratio  of  the  male  and  female  elements  being  at 
4.6  to  5.4,  there  must  then  have  been  84,970 
male  serfs  and  99,737  female. 

The  treatment  of  serfs  in  Japan  did  not  display 
cruelties  like  those  practised  in  ancient  Rome. 
There  were  five  classes:  guards  of  the  Imperial 
sepulchres,  servants  employed  in  Administrative 
offices,  domestic  servants,  -State  serfs,  and  private 
serfs.  Men  belonging  to  the  first  two  classes 
differed  little  from  ordinary  subjects,  and  were 
often  rehabilitated.  They  had  establishments  of 
their  own  and  could  acquire  property.  Domestic 
serfs  may  be  described,  not  incorrectly,  as  poor 
relatives  who,  generation  after  generation,  earned 
a  livelihood  by  performing  menial  household 
duties  in  families  to  which  they  were  bound  by 
ties  of  kith  and  kin.  It  seems  a  misnomer  to 
call  such  persons  "  serfs,"  but  they  were  so  classed 
in  old  Japan.  State  serfs  were  captives  made  in 
war,  or  the  domestic  serfs  —  that  is  to  say,  the 
indigent  relatives  —  of  men  convicted  of  offences 
involving  degradation  and  confiscation.  The  lot 
of  these  serfs  was  ameliorated,  rather  than  aggra- 
vated, by  transfer  to  the  State.  Private  serfdom 
seems  to  have  been  the  worst  condition  of  all. 
The  private  serf  was  bought  and  sold  like  any 
ordinary  chattel,  the  only  proviso  being  that  the 
transaction  must  be  duly  registered.  But  the  lash 
16  241 


JAPAN 

was  not  used  to  compel  work,  nor  is  there  any 
record  that  the  idea  of  chaining  a  serf  ever  sug- 
gested itself  to  a  Japanese  householder  or  official. 
It  would  appear,  too,  that  the  prospect  of  an 
aged  person's  dying  without  having  tasted  the 
sweets  of  freedom,  revolted  ancient  legislators. 
They  enacted  that,  if  a  State  serf  attained  the  age 
of  sixty-six,  or  became  incapacitated  by  disease,  he 
should  be  promoted  to  be  an  official  employe,  and  at 
seventy-six  he  was  rehabilitated.  Even  a  man  who 
had  been  degraded  for  treason,  was  restored  to  his 
old  status  when  he  reached  the  age  of  eighty. 
Other  causes  of  manumission  were  emancipation 
(which  carried  with  it  exemption  from  taxation 
during  a  period  of  three  years  from  the  date  of 
rehabilitation),  judgment  of  a  law  court,  extinc- 
tion of  a  master's  family,  meritorious  service,  and 
adoption  of  the  Buddhist  priesthood,  for  a  Bud- 
dhist priest  had  no  social  status,  and  consequently 
a  serf  entering  the  priesthood  ceased  to  be  subject 
to  social  discrimination.  But  despite  this  disposi- 
tion to  lighten  the  lot  of  the  serf,  stringent  meas- 
ures were  adopted  to  preserve  the  distinctions  of 
caste.  Nothing  save  the  pride  of  rank  prevented 
intermarriages  between  the  patricians  and  the 
commoners  (heimin).  If,  however,  either  a  patri- 
cian or  a  commoner  married  a  serf,  the  offspring 
of  the  union  became  a  serf.  Even  among  the 
serfs  themselves,  difference  of  grade  originally 
constituted  a  barrier  to  marriage.1  These  harsh 

1  See  Appendix,  note  64. 

242 


THE     HEIAN     EPOCH 

enactments  received  modification  at  the  beginning 
of  the  ninth  century.  Thenceforth  the  issue  of 
a  mixed  marriage  received  the  status  of  which- 
ever parent  stood  higher  in  the  social  scale.  But 
the  spirit  of  exclusiveness  underwent  no  change, 
and  there  is  also  evidence  that,  in  the  long  medi- 
aeval era  of  incessant  war,  the  practice  of  kid- 
napping young  persons  of  both  sexes  and  selling 
them  into  serfdom  constituted  one  of  the  promi- 
nent abuses  of  the  age. 


243 


Appendix 


245 


Appendix 


NOTE  i .  —  The  total  area  of  these  islands  and  islets  is 
162,000  square  miles,  in  round  numbers,  of  which  16,000 
square  miles  have  been  added  since  the  centralisation  of  the 
Government  in  1867.  Taken  in  order  of  magnitude,  the 
five  principal  islands  are  Hondo,  or  Nippon  (86,373  square 
miles);  Yezo  (30,148  square  miles);  Kiushu  (13,778  square 
miles);  Formosa  (13,429  square  miles),  and  Skikoku  (6,86 1 
square  miles).  Previously  to  the  acquisition  of  Formosa,  the 
area  of  the  Japanese  empire  was  equal  to  that  of  the  British 
Isles,  Holland,  and  Belgium  combined.  With  the  addition  of 
Formosa  and  the  Pescadores,  it  has  become  approximately 
equal  to  the  area  of  the  British  Isles,  Holland,  Belgium,  and 
Denmark. 

NOTE   2. — The  Koji-ki^  or  annals  of  ancient  matters. 

NOTE  3.  —  The  Nihon-gi  (history  of  Japan)  and  the 
Koga-sbu  (ancient  records). 

NOTE  4.  —  Personal  names  were  taken  from  the  terminology 
of  natural  objects.  Thus  an  Emperor  was  called  "  large  wren," 
and  noblemen  were  designated  "  mackerel,"  "  red  fish,"  "  fire- 
fly," "  weazel,"  "bonito,"  "earth-worm,"  "dragon,"  "whale," 
etc.  No  change  in  this  system  occurred  until  the  introduction 
of  Chinese  learning  and  Buddhism,  when  curiously  incongruous 
appellations  began  to  be  adopted  ;  as  "  Head-fisherman  Amida  " 
(Amabe  no  Amida),  "  Silk-embroiderer  Confucius  "  (Kinunui  no 
Koshi},  "Bow-maker  Buddha"  (Yuge  no  Shako),  "  Field-dog- 
keeper  Laotsze  "  (Agata  no  Tsukai  no  Roshi),  and  others  equally 
startling,  even  courtesans  taking  the  names  of  deities.  In  the 
ninth  century  the  Emperor  Nimmiyo  set  a  new  example.  He 
gave  himself  a  name  signifying  "just  and  righteous"  (seiryo), 
being  thus  the  first  to  import  an  abstract  idea  into  personal 

247 


APPENDIX 

nomenclature.  The  fashion  of  the  nanori  (self-given  name) 
was  thus  inaugurated.  A  few  years  previously,  another  sover- 
eign (Kwammu,  782—806)  caused  an  eminent  scholar  to  assign 
posthumous  names  to  the  former  occupants  of  the  Throne,  and 
the  result  was  that  the  Rulers  of  Japan  came  to  be  known  in 
history  by  names  of  which  many  were  borrowed  from  the  annals 
of  China  or  Tartary,  and  none  was  borne  during  his  lifetime 
by  the  sovereign  thus  designated.  In  mediaeval  times,  strange 
confusion  was  caused  by  extending  the  old  methods  of  nomen- 
clature without  regard  to  the  motives  that  had  governed  them. 
It  thus  fell  out  that  many  of  the  official  titles  which  had  been 
prefixed  to  personal  names  in  the  early  ages  and  used  in  lieu  of 
patronyms,  took  permanent  place  in  the  language  as  family 
appellations,  and  were  employed  without  the  slightest  discrimi- 
nation as  to  their  fitness.  To  this  abuse  was  due  the  common 
adoption  of  such  names  as  Otomo  (Great  subject),  Okura  (Im- 
perial treasury),  Inukai  (Master  of  hounds),  Hatori  (Weaver), 
and  so  on.  A  still  more  indiscriminate  extension  of  this  habit 
is  attributable  to  the  levelling  of  time-honoured  social  distinc- 
tions that  took  place  during  the  military  epoch,  when  soldiers 
ruled  the  country  and  provincial  captains  supplanted  the  Court 
nobles  in  the  metropolis.  The  old  official  titles  then  began  to 
do  duty  as  personal  names,  so  that  (to  convert  the  facts  into 
their  English  equivalents)  the  sons  of  private  soldiers  received 
baptismal  names  such  as  "  Lord  Chamberlain "  or  "  Com- 
modore "  ;  the  child  of  a  farmer  might  be  dubbed  "  Prince  "  or 
"  Lord  Chamberlain,"  and  a  courtesan  or  danseuse  went  by  the 
name  of  "  High  Prelate  "  or  u  Field  Marshal,"  even  differences 
of  sex  being  lost  sight  of  in  the  general  confusion.  Another 
method  of  naming  was  inaugurated  in  very  early  times  :  the 
sovereign  bestowed  a  patronym,  much  as  titles  were  given  in 
the  West.  In  constructing  such  a  name,  the  feat  that  it  com- 
memorated was  translated  into  symbolical  language  —  as  when 
a  great  archer  was  called  u  noble  target,"  —  or  some  natural 
object  of  special  beauty  or  grandeur  was  taken,  or  else  a  part 
of  the  donor's  name  was  joined  to  a  part  of  the  recipient's. 
The  greatest  family  that  Japan  ever  possessed — the  Fujiwara 
(wistaria  plain) — had  the  honour  of  obtaining  its  designation 
from  an  Emperor.  There  are  only  292  family  names  in  Japan, 

248 


APPENDIX 

and  of  these  39  are  derived  from  the  nomenclature  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  44  from  that  of  other  natural  objects,  14 
from  that  of  geographical  divisions,  and  the  rest  from  ancient 
official  titles,  moral  or  physical  qualities,  and  miscellaneous 
sources.  The  method  that  finally  came  into  commonest  vogue 
may  be  thus  described.  Parents  in  naming  their  sons  generally 
adopted  a  numerical  suffix,—  taro  (great  male)  for  the  eldest'; 
jiro  (second  male)  for  the  next ;  saburo  (third  male)  for  the  next, 
and  so  on  —  and,  by  way  of  prefix,  chose  the  name  of  some 
natural  object,  as  kin  (gold),  gin  (silver),  tetsu  (iron),  matsu 
(pine),  ume  (plum),  take  (bamboo),  etc.  Thus  there  resulted 
such  names  as  Kintaro,  or  Matsujiro,  or  Ginzaburo,  which  had 
the  advantage  of  conveying  information  about  the  number  of  a 
man's  elder  brothers  as  well  as  about  himself.  Another  method 
of  constructing  boys'  names  was  to  use  the  numerical  compo- 
nent as  prefix,  appending  to  it  the  designation  of  an  office,  as  suke 
(assistant  official),  hiyo-yei  (military  guard),  yemon  (gate  guard), 
etc.  Thus  were  obtained  Tarosuke,  Jiro-biyoyei  (abbreviated  to 
Jirobei),  Saburo-yemon,  and  so  on.  It  will  be  easily  understood 
that  names  of  the  latter  kind  were  originally  confined  to  persons 
eligible  for  the  offices  indicated  :  they  are,  in  fact,  an  outcome 
of  the  ancient  custom  which  merged  the  personality  of  the 
individual  in  his  official  position,  and  bestowed  on  families  a 
hereditary  title  to  certain  posts.  For  a  similar  reason,  family 
names,  since  they  had  their  origin  in  offices  of  State,  might  not 
be  borne  by  commoners  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  limited  to 
the  comparatively  small  section  of  the  nation  which  could  trace 
its  descent  from  the  chiefs  of  the  first  colonists  and  had  been 
admitted  to  that  rank  for  special  reasons.  The  rule  held  until 
modern  times.  Hence,  if  a  man  possessed  a  family  name,  it 
was  possible  to  be  at  once  assured  that  he  belonged  to  the  patri- 
cian order.  Japanese  names  are  a  source  of  considerable  per- 
plexity to  foreigners,  because,  in  addition  to  the  family  name 
(tt/V  or  miyoji)  and  the  personal  name  (zokumiyo),  there  was  a 
child-name  (psana)  ;  there  was  an  "  adopted  name  "  or  "  true 
name "  (nanori  or  jitsumiyo) ;  there  was  a  posthumous  name 
(okurina  or  kaimei),  and  there  was  sometimes  an  art  name  (^o). 
The  "  adopted  "  or  "  true  "  name  was  nothing  more  than  a 
second  personal  name  —  independent  of  any  of  the  suffixes  or 

249 


APPENDIX 

prefixes  mentioned  above  —  which  was  taken  by  a  patrician  lad 
on  emerging  from  childhood,  the  posthumous  name  was  given 
by  the  Buddhist  priests  and  inscribed  on  the  tomb,  and  the  art 
name  was  taken  by  a  painter,  an  author,  a  musician,  an  artisan, 
or  a  professional  expert  of  any  kind. 

Just  as  in  the  West  it  has  always  been  a  point  of  etiquette 
to  avoid  using  the  name  of  a  person  of  rank  to  whom  one 
addresses  oneself,  so  in  Japan,  the  post  of  an  official,  or  the 
palace  of  a  nobleman,  or  some  other  impersonal  designation 
was  always  used  in  speaking  to  illustrious  individuals.  But 
that  is  a  matter  connected  with  the  genius  of  the  language 
rather  than  with  the  question  of  nomenclature. 

NOTE  5.  —  These  gohei  (sacred  offerings),  as  they  are  called, 
have  never  ceased  to  be  an  important  part  of  the  paraphernalia 
of  worship.  They  maybe  seen  to-day  suspended  at  the  shrines, 
near  the  sepulchres  of  the  dead  and  before  the  family  altar.  It 
is  supposed  by  some  that  they  originally  served  merely  as  means 
of  accentuating  the  outlines  of  the  rope  fences  enclosing  a 
deified  tree,  and  that,  like  all  other  objects  employed  for  cere- 
monial purposes,  they  were  subsequently  endued  with  sanctity 
of  their  own.  Another,  and  more  probable,  theory  is  that  they 
were  pieces  of  the  cloth  offered  to  the  deities. 

NOTE  6.  —  Admirable  translations  of  many  of  these  rituals 
have  been  made  by  Sir  Earnest  Satow,  Mr.  W.  G.  Aston,  and 
Dr.  Florenz. 

NOTE  7.  —  "  Rock-house  "  (iiva-iye)  or  "  demon's  closet " 
(oni  no  setsuin)  was  the  term  applied  to  these  caves  by  later 
generations. 

NOTE  8.  —  It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the  oldest  form  of 
building  the  pillars  were  not  sunk  in  the  ground  without  stone 
foundations. 

NOTE  9.  —  It  would  seem  that  a  refined  sense  of  tone 
existed  among  the  early  Japanese,  for  the  records  say  that  the 
Emperor  Ojin,  who  reigned  at  the  close  of  the  third  century, 
used  ship-building  wood  for  the  body  of  the  IVa-kin  and  that 
the  instrument  gave  particularly  melodious  notes. 

NOTE  10.  — Examples  of  adaptability  of  Chinese  ideographs 
are  innumerable.  Thus,  dempo  (transmitted  intelligence)  is  the 
exact  equivalent  of  "  telegram  ;  "  Kaikwan-zei  (sea-gate  tax) 

250 


APPENDIX 

well  expresses  "  customs  duty ; "  rigaku  (natural-law  science 
accurately  represents  "  physics ;  "  Kikwa-ho  (country-change 
law)  conveys  without  mistake  the  idea  of  "  naturalization  law," 
and  such  instances  might  be  multiplied  ad  infinitum. 

NOTE  ii.  —  A  legend  of  the  Empress  Komyo  says  that,  in 
obedience  to  a  voice  audible  to  herself  alone,  she  vowed  to  wash 
with  her  own  hands  the  bodies  of  a  thousand  beggars.  The 
task  had  been  completed  as  far  as  999,  when  there  presented 
himself  a  loathsome  leper,  covered  with  revolting  sores.  The 
courageous  woman  did  not  hesitate.  She  proceeded  to  wash 
the  leper,  and  when  he  told  her  that  if  there  were  found  in  the 
world  any  woman  sufficiently  merciful  to  draw  the  venom  from 
his  sores  with  her  mouth  he  should  be  healed,  she  did  him  that 
service.  Thereupon  the  place  was  filled  with  dazzling  efful- 
gence •,  an  exquisite  aroma  diffused  itself  around,  and  the  leper, 
declaring  himself  the  Buddha,  disappeared. 

NOTE  12.  — The  Emperor  Temmu  (673-686)  ordered  that 
every  house  in  the  land  should  have  an  altar  for  the  worship  of 
Buddha,  and  his  successors  called  temples  and  idols  into  existence 
by  edicts. 

NOTE  13. — The  Emperor  Shomu  (724-748)  was  the 
inaugurator  of  this  custom.  After  a  reign  of  twenty-four 
years,  he  shaved  his  head  and  retired  to  a  cloister. 

NOTE   14. Dokyo,  the  favourite  Minister  of  the  Empress 

Dowager  Koken. 

NOTE  15.  —  Only  certain  portions  of  the  document  are 
quoted  here. 

NOTE  16.  —  The  Soga  family.  This  was  the  clan  that  dis- 
tinguished itself  by  its  unique  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  Buddhism, 
and  assisted  Prince  Shotoku  to  destroy  its  own  great  rival,  the 
Mononobe  clan,  which  inveterately  opposed  the  foreign  faith. 
The  Soga  survived  the  Mononobe  for  thirty  years  only.  Their 
disloyal  arbitrariness  towards  the  Throne  provoked  a  revolt 
which  ended  fatally  for  themselves. 

NOTE  17.  —  Taikwa  signifies  u  great  change."  It  was  the 
first  year-name  in  Japan,  the  period  645-649  A.  D.  being  called 
Taikwo. 

NOTE  1 8.  —  The  student  will  hear  this  memorable 
reformation  described  sometimes  as  the  Taikwa  (great  change) 

251 


APPENDIX 

and  sometimes  as  the  Taibo  (or  Dalb'o)  reform,  the  former  term 
being  derived  from  the  name  of  the  year-period  (645—649)  when 
the  new  legislation  commenced ;  the  latter  from  that  of  the 
period  (701—703)  when  it  terminated. 

NOTE  19.  —  A  residence  built  for  himself  by  the  Soga  chief 
Iruka  is  said  to  have  been  surrounded  with  a  palisade  and  pro- 
vided with  storehouses  for  weapons  and  armour,  and  each  gate 
had  buckets  hung  near  it  as  a  precaution  against  fire.  The 
residence  of  the  same  Minister's  father  was  encircled  with 
moats  and  had  arrow-magazines. 

NOTE  20.  —  In  the  reign  of  the  Empress  Jito  (690—696), 
for  example,  no  less  than  seven  waves  of  immigrants  are  said 
to  have  flowed  to  the  shores  of  Japan,  and  all  these  strangers 
were  hospitably  welcomed  and  their  services  utilised. 

NOTE  21. —  The  Empress  Koken  (749—758)  issued  an 
edict  that  every  house  throughout  the  realm  should  be  provided 
with  a  copy  of  the  Classic  of  Filial  Piety,  and  should  regard  it 
as  the  primer  of  morality;  and  from  her  time  onwards  successive 
sovereigns  employed  their  influence  to  popularise  Confucian- 
ism, bestowing  liberal  rewards  upon  women  who  distinguished 
themselves  by  fidelity  to  their  husbands,  upon  children  con- 
spicuous for  piety  to  their  parents,  or  upon  servants  noted  for 
loyalty  to  their  masters. 

NOTC  22.  —  The  Mara  of  the  present  day  lies  mainly  to  the 
eastward  of  the  old  capital,  but  the  temples  occupy  their  original 
site. 

NOTE  23.  —  A  couplet  written  at  that  era  embodied  the 
popular  conception  of  a  journey :  "  The  grandest  rice-bowl 
used  at  home  becomes  for  the  traveller  an  oak-leaf." 

NOTE  24.  —  Temmu  (673-686). 

NOTE  25.  —  The  method  of  treating  children's  hair  in  the 
Nara  epoch  was  picturesque.  At  the  age  of  three  the  little 
one's  hair  was  cut  short  but  of  equal  length  all  over.  It  was 
then  allowed  to  grow  until  it  reached  the  shoulders,  at  which 
length  it  was  kept,  the  hair  over  the  forehead,  however,  being 
trimmed  so  as  to  form  a  fringe  hanging  to  the  eyebrows.  A 
few  years  later,  a  boy's  hair  was  looped  up  on  each  side  in  the 
shape  of  a  gourd-flower,  and  a  girl's  was  suffered  to  grow 
thenceforth  without  restraint. 

252 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  26. — Japanese  antiquarians  assert  that  both  men  and 
women  of  rank  wore  long  veils  in  early  times,  and  were  equally 
averse  to  exposing  their  complexions. 

NOTE  27. —  Another  evidence  of  the  fidelity  with  which 
Chinese  fashions  were  copied. 

NOTE  28. —  It  has  been  alleged  that  by  striking  the  palms 
together  when  about  to  worship,  a  Japanese  intends  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  deity.  The  explanation  is  fanciful  and 
groundless. 

NOTE  29.  —  It  is  built  with  logs  of  wood,  hexagonal  in 
section,  laid  horizontally,  so  that  the  walls  present  a  deeply 
corrugated  appearance.  Though  repaired  from  time  to  time, 
this  storehouse  retains  the  exact  form  given  to  it  by  its  archi- 
tects nearly  twelve  centuries  ago. 

NOTE  30.  —  Out  of  this  rule  grew  the  appellation  shinzo 
(new  building)  still  commonly  applied  to  Japanese  wives  in  the 
middle  classes. 

NOTE  31.  —  Mr.  Basil  H.  Chamberlain,  in  the  admirable 
preface  to  his  "  Classical  Poetry  of  the  Japanese,"  explains 
this  point  with  great  clearness,  and  M.  D.  E.  Aston,  in  his 
exhaustive  treatise  on  "Japanese  Literature,"  shows  why  rhyme 
would  scarcely  be  possible  to  a  poet  using  the  Japanese  language, 
namely,  that  as  all  Japanese  words  end  in  one  of  the  five  vowels, 
constant  iteration  of  the  same  sound  would  be  inevitable. 

NOTE  32.  —  This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  Japanese 
use  the  same  word  («ta)  to  express  "  song  and  poem." 

NOTE  33.  —  A  stringed  instrument  played  with  both  hands; 
the  fingers  of  the  right  hand  being  armed  with  ivory  tips,  and 
the  fingers  of  the  left  being  used  to  press  the  strings. 

NOTE  34.  — "Fujiwara"  signifies  "Wistaria  plain." 
The  name  was  conferred  by  the  sovereign  on  Kamatari  in  rec- 
ognition of  his  services. 

NOTE  35.  —  The  consort  of  the  late  Emperor  Komei 
(1847-66)  was  a  Fujiwara,  and  the  bride  of  the  present  Prince 
Imperial  is  also  a  Fujiwara. 

NOTE  36.  —  Kyoto  continued  to  be  the  Imperial  capital 
during  1,074  years,  until  the  Meiji  Restoration  of  1867,  when 
the  Court  was  transferred  to  Yedo  (now  Tokyo).  Seventy- 
seven  Emperors  held  their  courts  successively  in  Kyoto. 

253 


APPENDIX 

During  an  interval  so  protracted,  the  city,  of  course,  under- 
went many  changes,  but  to  this  day  its  general  plan  remains 
on  the  lines  of  its  earliest  projection.  It  was  built  after  the 
general  scheme  of  Nara,  but  on  a  much  grander  scale.  The 
outline  was  rectangular,  17,530  feet  from  north  to  south,  and 
15,080  feet  from  east  to  west.  Moats  and  palisades  surrounded 
the  whole  —  the  system  of  crenelated  walls  and  flanking 
towers  not  having  been  yet  introduced  —  and  the  Imperial 
Palace,  its  citadel,  administrative  departments,  and  assembly 
halls  occupied  the  centre  of  the  northern  portion.  The  Palace 
was  approached  from  the  south,  its  main  gate  opening  upon  a 
long  street  280  feet  wide  which  ran  right  down  the  centre  of 
the  city.  Thus  the  city  was  divided  into  two  equal  parts,  of 
which  the  eastern  was  designated  "  left  metropolis, "  and  the 
western,  "  right  metropolis."  The  superficial  division  was 
into  districts,  of  which  there  were  nine,  all  equal  in  size  except 
those  on  the  east  and  west  of  the  Palace.  An  elaborate  system 
of  subdivision  was  adopted.  The  unit,  or  house,  was  a  space 
measuring  100  feet  by  50.  Eight  of  these  units  made  a  row  ; 
four  rows,  a  street ;  four  streets,  a  division ;  four  divisions,  a 
district.  The  entire  capital  contained  1,216  streets  and  38,912 
houses,  with  a  population  of  about  two  hundred  thousand. 
The  arrangement  of  the  streets  was  strictly  regular.  They  lay 
parallel  and  at  right  angles,  like  the  lines  on  a  checker-board. 
The  Imperial  citadel  measured  3,840  feet  from  east  to  west, 
and  4,600  feet  from  north  to  south.  On  each  side  were  three 
gates ;  in  the  middle  stood  the  Palace,  surrounded  by  the  build- 
ings of  the  various  administrative  departments,  and  in  front 
were  the  assembly  and  audience  halls.  The  nine  districts 
were  divided  from  each  other  by  main  streets,  varying  in  width 
from  170  feet  to  80  feet.  They  intersected  the  city  from  east  to 
west ;  were  numbered  from  I  to  9,  and  were  themselves  inter- 
sected in  turn  by  similar  streets  running  north  and  south,  and 
by  lanes  at  regular  intervals.  The  buildings  were  in  general 
lowly  and  unpretentious.  Even  in  the  case  of  the  Palace,  the 
architects  observed  the  austere  canons  of  the  Shinto  cult,  which 
prescribed  purity  and  simplicity  as  the  essential  attributes  of 
refinement;  and  in  the  case  of  the  citizens'  dwellings,  every 
effort  to  obtain  lightness,  airiness,  or  ornamentation  was  reserved 

254 


APPENDIX 

for  chambers  opening  upon  inner  courts,  or  looking  out  on 
miniature  back-gardens,  so  that  the  front  effect  was  sombre  and 
monotonous.  Many  of  the  houses  were  roofed  with  shingles, 
but  some  had  slate-coloured  tiles,  and  the  Palace  itself  was  ren- 
dered conspicuous  by  green  glazed  tiles  imported  from  China. 
The  conception  of  such  a  city  at  such  an  epoch  —  half  a  cen- 
tury before  Lodbrok  the  Dane  sailed  up  the  Seine,  and  fifty- 
five  years  before  the  birth  of  Alfred  the  Great  —  bears  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  highly  civilised  condition  of  Japan  and  to  the 
Emperor  Kwammu's  greatness  of  mind  and  resources. 

NOTE  37.  —  Such  persons  were  named  ronin,  literally, 
"  wave  men ;  "  that  is  to  say,  individuals  without  any  fixed 
status  or  employment.  They  are  met  here  for  the  first  time 
in  Japanese  history,  where  they  thenceforth  figure  as  a  perpet- 
ual element  of  unrest. 

NOTE  38.  —  He  employed  able  men  without  any  regard 
for  the  part  they  had  acted  in  his  own  life.  He  gave  the  com- 
mand of  the  Bando  troops  to  Tamura-no-maro,  whose  father 
had  intrigued  to  procure  the  Throne  for  a  different  prince,  and 
he  appointed  as  tutor  to  the  Heir  apparent  a  man  who  had 
twice  endeavoured  to  thwart  his  purposes. 

NOTE  39.  —  It  is  noticeable  that  this  spirit  of  exclusiveness 
did  not  take  any  account  of  alien  origin.  Tamura-no-Maro, 
who  commanded  the  Emperor  Kwammu's  Bando  soldiery,  was 
descended  from  a  naturalised  Chinaman.  Yet,  on  returning 
to  Kyot5  after  the  final  defeat  of  the  Yezo,  he  received  the 
Emperor's  daughter  in  marriage,  and  became  the  father  of  the 
next  sovereign,  Heizei. 

NOTE  40.  —  The  extreme  possibilities  of  this  system  were 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  Fujiwara  chief  Michinaga.  He 
held  the  office  of  Regent  during  the  reigns  of  three  Emperors 
(987-1037);  his  three  daughters  became  the  consorts  of  three 
successive  sovereigns,  and  he  was  grandfather  simultaneously  of 
a  reigning  Emperor  and  of  an  heir  apparent.  Nothing  was 
allowed  to  interfere  with  the  consummation  of  this  nobleman's 
designs.  Desiring  that  his  daughter,  Aki,  should  enter  the 
Palace  where  his  elder  brother's  daughter,  Sada,  already  held  1 
position  of  Empress,  and  unwilling  that  his  child  should  have 
inferior  rank,  he  devised  for  Aki  a  special  title,  carrying  with 


APPENDIX 

it  all  the  privileges  of  an   Imperial  consort.     There  were  thus 
two  Empresses,  each  living  in  a  palace  of  her  own. 

NOTE  41.  —  The  memory  of  this  unfortunate  statesman, 
Sugawara-no-Michizane,  is  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  romance 
which  affords  an  insight  into  Japanese  character.  He  belonged 
to  an  ancient  family  of  professional  litterateurs,  and  had  none  of 
the  titles  which  in  that  age  were  commonly  considered  essen- 
tial to  official  preferment.  By  extraordinary  scholarship,  singu- 
lar sweetness  of  disposition,  and  unswerving  fidelity  to  justice 
and  truth,  he  won  a  high  reputation,  and  had  he  been  content 
with  the  fame  that  his  writings  brought  him,  and  with  promot- 
ing the  cause  of  scholarship  through  the  medium  of  a  school 
which  he  endowed,  he  might  have  ended  his  days  in  peace.  But, 
in  an  evil  hour,  he  accepted  office,  and  thus  found  himself 
required  to  discharge  the  duties  of  statesmanship  at  a  time  of 
extreme  difficulty,  when  an  immense  interval  separated  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  when  political  power  was  usurped  by  some  and 
abused  by  others,  when  the  arbitrariness  and  extortions  of  the 
local  governors  had  become  a  burning  question,  when  the 
nobles  and  princes  were  crushing  the  people  with  merciless 
taxes,  and  when  the  finances  of  the  Court  were  in  extreme 
disorder.  Michizane,  a  gentle  conservative,  was  not  fitted  to 
cope  with  these  difficulties,  and  his  situation  at  Court  was  com- 
plicated by  the  favour  of  an  ex-Emperor  (Uda)  who  had  abdi- 
cated but  still  sought  to  take  part  in  the  administration,  and  by 
the  jealousy  of  the  Fujiwara  representative,  Tokihira,  a  young, 
impetuous,  arrogant,  but  highly  gifted  nobleman.  These  two 
men,  Michizane  and  Tokihira,  became  the  central  figures  in 
a  very  unequal  struggle,  the  forces  on  the  one  side  being  the 
whole  Fujiwara  clan  headed  by  the  unscrupulously  daring  and 
ambitious  Tokihira;  those  on  the  other,  a  few  scholars,  the 
love  and  respect  of  the  lower  orders  and  the  benevolent  toler- 
ance of  the  self-effacing  Michizane.  The  end  was  inevitable. 
Michizane,  falsely  accused  of  conspiring  to  obtain  the  Throne 
for  his  grandson  —  an  Imperial  prince  had  married  his  daughter 
—  was  banished  to  Dazaifu,  and  his  family  and  friends  were 
either  killed  or  reduced  to  serfdom.  The  story  is  not  remark- 
able. It  contains  no  great  crises  or  dazzling  incidents.  Yet 
if  Michizane  had  been  the  most  brilliant  statesman  and  the 

256 


APPENDIX 

most  successful  general  ever  possessed  by  Japan,  his  name 
could  not  have  been  handed  down  through  all  generations  of 
his  countrymen  with  greater  veneration  and  affection. 

NOTE  42. —  The  Emperor  Seiwa  (859—876)  was  the  first, 
and  his  example  was  followed  by  Uda  (888-897).  But  there 
was  a  difference.  Seiwa,  after  surrendering  the  sceptre,  de- 
voted himself  sincerely  to  prayer  and  pilgrimages  :  Uda  took  the 
title  of  H~o  (high  pontiff)  and,  as  the  head  of  all  the  Buddhist 
prelates,  led  a  life  of  splendour  scarcely  inferior  to  his  previous 
state. 

NOTE  43.  — The  posthumous  name  given  to  the  deceased 
by  the  Buddhist  priests  was  inscribed  with  letters  of  gold  on 
a  black  lacquered  tablet,  and  was  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the 
temple  where  the  body  was  buried. 

NOTE  44.  —  The  "  divine  tree  "  was  the  emblem  of  Shinto. 
It  will  therefore  be  understood  that  these  menacing  demon- 
strations, though  inaugurated  by  the  Buddhist  priests,  were 
employed  sometimes  by  Shinto  ministers  also.  Instances  of  the 
latter  nature  were  comparatively  rare,  however. 

NOTE  45.  —  This  included  the  birth  of  a  domesticated  ani- 
mal or  bird,  barn-door  fowl  excepted. 

NOTE  46. — These  rules  are  quoted  from  a  book  of  eti- 
quette published  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century. 

NOTE  47.  —  A  species  of  guitar  with  three  strings  ;  essen- 
tially a  woman's  instrument. 

NOTE  48. — This  game  was  called  iro-bumi-awase  (com- 
posing love-letters),  and  the  method  of  procedure  corresponded 
to  that  of  the  uta-cnvase  (composing  poems).  It  found  great 
favour  during  the  reign  of  Horikawa  (1087-1107). 

NOTE  49. Every  Chinese  ideograph  has  a  basic  element, 

which  is  called  the  radical;  and  a  phonetic   part  which  suggests 
the  sound.     Numbers  of  ideographs  being  mononymous,  have 
the  same  phonetic  part,  with  different  radicals,   and  numbers 
have  the  same  radical  with  different  phonetic  parts.     Given  a 
certain  radical,  to  construct  from   memory  as  many  as  possible 
of  the  ideographs  composed  with  it ;  or  given  a  certain   pho 
netic,  to  draw  up  an  exhaustive  list   of  the  mononyms   i 
longs  to,— such  was  the  method  of  the  old-time  calligraph, 
competitions. 

'7  257 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  50.  —  Every  one  of  these  halls  and  galleries  had  its 
appellation,  as,  the  "  hall  of  everlasting  benevolence,"  the  "  hall 
of  sweet  savour,"  the  "hall  of  perpetual  peace,"  the  "  hall  of 
virtue  and  justice,"  and  so  on. 

NOTE  51.  —  Hence  the  wife  of  a  nobleman  was  usually 
called  Kita-no-kata,  or  "the  northern  personage." 

NOTE  52. — The  dimensions  of  a  mat  were  invariably  six 
feet  by  three.  It  served  as  a  unit  of  superficial  measurement. 
Instead  of  saying  that  a  room  measured  so  many  feet  each  way, 
people  said  that  so  many  mats  could  be  spread  there.  Two  mats 
made  a  tsubo  (six  feet  by  six  feet),  the  unit  of  area  for  lands  and 
buildings  alike.  The  convenience  of  this  method  of  measure- 
ment is  great.  If  a  house  is  said  to  have  so  many  feet  of  front- 
age and  so  many  feet  of  depth,  little  idea  of  its  accommodation 
is  conveyed  to  ordinary  minds,  and  even  the  dimensions  of  a 
room,  when  stated  in  feet,  are  difficult  to  picture  to  the  imagina- 
tion. But  when  a  Japanese  hears  that  a  house  has  fifty  tsubo, 
for  example,  of  superficies,  he  knows  that  one  hundred  mats 
can  be  spread  there,  and  as  he  is  quite  familiar  with  the  space 
enclosed  in  a  room  of  six  mats,  or  eight  mats,  or  ten  mats  and 
so  on,  he  obtains  at  once  a  clear  conception  of  the  number  of 
rooms  that  such  a  house  may  contain  and  their  size.  He 
speaks,  also,  of  the  cost  of  building  at  so  much  a  tsubo,  and  can 
thus  estimate  at  once  the  expense  of  erecting  a  house  with  a 
given  amount  of  accommodation. 

NOTE  53.  —  The  paper  of  that  time  was  not  sufficiently 
tough  to  be  fitted  for  such  a  purpose. 

NOTE  54.  —  Echigo  is  now  the  chief  centre  of  kerosene 
production  in  Japan. 

NOTE  55.  —  The  custom  of  putting  red  and  gold  on  the  lip 
had  not  yet  been  introduced. 

NOTE  56.  —  Tea  and  two  varieties  of  sake.  The  sake,  or 
rice-beer,  of  that  time  was  brewed  just  as  it  is  at  present.  But, 
after  brewing,  it  was  often  mixed  with  ashes  of  the  Cleroden- 
dron  tricotomum  to  give  it  a  bitter  taste.  It  then  received  the 
name  of  "  black  sake" 

NOTE  57. — It  is  uncertain  when  tea  was  introduced  into 
Japan.  As  early  as  the  reign  of  Shomu  (724-748),  a  tea-drink- 
ing entertainment  took  place  in  the  Palace.  The  Buddhist 


APPENDIX 

priests  seem  to  have  obtained  the  leaf  from  China,  and  to  have 
remained  almost  the  exclusive  users  of  the  beverage  until  the 
beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  when  the  Emperor  Saga  was  so 
pleased  with  tea  given  to  him  by  a  Buddhist  prelate  that  he 
ordered  the  plant  to  be  cultivated  in  five  provinces  near  the 
capital.  But  he  did  not  succeed  in  making  it  popular.  Its 
very  name  was  forgotten  for  nearly  three  centuries. 

NOTE  58.  —  A  spray  of  flowers  thus  attached  to  a  present 
was  called  kokoro-bana  (blossom  of  the  heart ;  /'.  ^.,  flower 
of  good  wishes).  Originally  real  flowers  were  used,  but  subse- 
quently artificial  blossoms  were  substituted  or  even  ribbons. 
In  a  still  later  age,  it  became  customary  to  decorate  with  a 
paper  butterfly  the  handle  of  a  vessel  used  for  pouring  out  sake 
on  occasions  of  congratulation,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  mod- 
ern habit  of  attaching  coloured  paper  to  a  gift  had  its  origin  in 
the  "  heart-blossom." 

NOTE  59.  —  The  annals  of  the  Heian  epoch  contain  the 
names  of  five  celebrated  flutes,  four  guitars,  and  nine  harps. 
The  names  given  to  them  were  such  as  "Verdant  leaves," 
"  Rippling  current,"  "  Summer  landscape,"  "  Restful  peace," 
"  Autumn  wind,"  "  Pine-scented  breeze,"  "  Memories  of  the 
past,"  and  so  on. 

NOTE  60.  —  Sung  by  the  celebrated  Shizuka  when,  after  her 
parting  from  Yoshitsune,  she  had  to  dance  before  his  brother 
and  enemy  Yoritomo. 

NOTE  6 1.  —  Fille  de  joie.  The  term  makes  its  appearance 
for  the  first  time  in  books  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century. 

NOTE  62.  —  A  striking  illustration  of  the  part  played  by 
women  and  of  the  morality  of  this  Court  is  furnished  in  the 
closing  scene  of  the  Heian  epoch.  The  Emperor  Toba  gave 
his  heart  to  a  concubine,  Toku  (afterwards  called  Bifuku- 
mon-in).  The  heir-apparent,  Sutoku,  though  nominally  Toba's 
son  by  his  consort  Soshi,  was  suspected  to  be  the  son  of  his 
grandfather,  Shirakawa,  who  had  been  a  lover  of  Soshi.  Toba, 
at  the  instigation  of  his  mistress  Toku,  caused  the  heir-apparent 
to  step  aside  in  favour  of  Toku's  son.  But  the  latter  died 
childless  at  an  early  age.  Sutoku  then  seeking  to  recover  his 
birthright,  was  opposed  by  the  lady  Toku,  who  maintained  that 

259 


APPENDIX 

her  son  had  been  done  to  death  by  Sutoku's  incantations. 
These  complications  inaugurated  the  struggle  between  the  two 
great  clans  of  Minamoto  and  Taira,  and  plunged  the  nation  into 
a  succession  of  sanguinary  wars. 

NOTE  63.  —  The  names  of  these  courtesans  are  appended 
to  poems  in  three  of  the  Japanese  classical  anthologies. 

NOTE  64.  —  The  reader  will  observe  that  a  serf  marriage 
was  legally  recognised.  It  was  not  a  mere  contubernium,  as  in 
Rome.  In  many  respects,  as  indeed  might  be  expected,  the 
condition  of  the  serf  in  Japan  resembled  that  of  the  slave  in 
Athens. 


260 


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